Lost Knight: A New Dawn
by Kusco
Summary: What if Obi-wan Disappeared on Tatooine? What if Obi-wan wasn't there to save Luke, or to receive Princess Leia's message? What if things turned out differently in a galaxy far far away? A New Hope AU
1. An Unexpected Rescue

**Chapter 1**

**Unexpected Rescue**

"Help me Obi-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

Princess Leia glanced over her shoulder then leaned down and switched off R2's holoimager and taking a deep breath. This was it, no turning back now. The droid let out one of his many chirps and whistles, which of course, she couldn't understand, but she liked to think it was an acknowledgment, that he understood how important the message and mission was.

But she didn't have time to dwell on such thoughts. The little droid needed to get to an escape pod, and she needed to get... anywhere else. For anything living, an escape pod was nothing less than a death sentence, which meant she was stuck on this ship, but she intended to avoid the Empire's patrols as long as she possibly could, and possibly take a few of them with her when they inevitably cornered her.

At least she had the home turf advantage, she knew the inside and outside of this ship as well as she knew every nook and cranny of her room at her father's the palace. With any luck, she would be able to keep the empire chasing after her for more than enough time for the little droid, and the vital plans that he carried, to escape.

After slipping by a couple of squadrons, Leia managed to make her way deeper into the depths of the ship. The Empire would be be flooding the maintenance shafts with gas so she had to stay the main corridors. Yet, in spite of the slinking around and imperial patrols, she actually managed to remain relatively calm, a no win scenario had that effect.

Until now.

Something in the air, had shifted in the last several minutes. The temperature felt like someone had altered the environmental controls; if she hadn't been running she might have shivered. Then there was the way the occasional trooper she slipped by seemed to be standing a little taller, or hold his weapon a little shakier. Something wasn't right, something more than the standard raid.

Of course, that feeling, of something being off, had lingered with her ever since they came out of hyperspace in the Tatooine system. General Kenobi was supposed to be on the dustball of a planet below. Yet even as Leia had said 'you're my only hope' the words had felt empty, as if she knew no one was there to answer.

But Leia, pushed those thoughts back. She had no choice but to hold to hope that Kenobi would answer her plea and deliver the plans to the Empire's superweapon to her father. If she couldn't hope for herself she had to hope for that.

As she crept through the corridors she found herself at a junction, one led to the main hold, the other to a chance for escape. If she could get past it she could slip into the engine room she could access a gas mask and then perhaps find away into the shafts. It wasn't a great plan, but at the moment, it was all she had. Holding her blaster at the ready, she peeked around the corner into the junction.

She wasn't one for vulgar words but 'kriff' was about the only word that covered it. For half a second she thought they hadn't spotted her, that she could slip back the way she came. Then one pointed and signaled his comrades. Leia wasted no time. She leveled her blaster and shot the one that gave her away, then made a break for the adjacent hallway. She knew this was it, there would be no escaping them at this point. She could only hope she could get far enough to lead them on a chase.

Behind her she heard the discharge of a blaster bolt, followed by a yelp, cut short by another blast.

Leia glanced over her shoulder then stopped in her tracks, almost tripping over her feet. Besides the stormtrooper she shot, lay two more, with the last one standing over their corpses.

It took a moment to figure out what happened. But even though the smoking barrel of the remaining trooper attested to his actions, Leia aimed her blaster at him. He may have just saved her, but she still had no idea who he was.

"Take the helmet off," she ordered. "Identify yourself."

"No time for that." the trooper said in a familiar voice, but still not one that identified him. There were still clones in the stormtrooper corps that originated from the original 'Fett' template, though not many. "Help me hide the bodies and strip their armor off."

"Take their armor off?" Leia said as the Stormtrooper dragged one of the corpses to a nearby alcove. "Why? Who are you? What's your designation?"

"Don't have one," he muttered as he grabbed the next body. "Your father sent me here to keep you alive."

Leia breathed a small sigh. A secret escort of some kind. That was just like her father. And in other circumstances she might have been annoyed. But considering the predicament they found themselves in, she couldn't be anything but thankful. Her mysterious protector might be rude, but could have been much worse.

"My father sent you? A rogue clone?" She said quietly as she helped move the last body. "Is there anyone else with you? Do we have an escape vehicle?"

The clone didn't say anything right away, instead he frittered with the clasps on the armor one of the dead troopers wore. Once he stripped the breastplate off the corpse, he shoved it into her arms.

"Help me get the rest off, between the three of them we should be able to cobble together a full set for you to wear."

"What?" Leia stared at the armor. "That's your escape plan? Have me put on oversized armor and hope nobody notices that I'm a little short for a-"

"Shut up and get dressed," The clone said. "I'll watch for any patrols. Hurry up."

"But... wha:.."

He merely put his back to her and stalked to the nearest entrance with his blaster ready. She was only left to shake her head then stare down at the armor. Where did her father dig this guy up? She knew she wasn't exactly in a position to pick and choose, but as far as rescuers went he left a lot to be desired.

A group of troopers passed by the outside corridor, quickly silencing her mental protestations and she began working on the armor in earnest. It took her a few moments longer than she would have liked, but she finally managed to put it all together. Though she did take pause at seeing the face of the man she took the helmet from. The helmets made it too easy to forget they were just as human as anybody fighting on her side.

Taking the helmet under her arm she approached the clone. He glanced back then nodded to the helmet.

"Put that on, don't speak, and follow me."

"Wait," she said. "What about the others? Captain Antilles, the ambassador, we have to try and rescue them!"

"No."

"What do you mean no?"

"Doesn't matter, your father didn't pay me to save them. Now put that on, shut up and come on."

"Paid!?" Leia started but the clone started off into the hallway. She had no choice but to slap on the helmet and race after him.

Not that it was easy, she couldn't see a thing in the helmet and it pressed uncomfortably against her hairbraids. In spite of that she did her best to keep up, though he always kept himself a few feet ahead, checking each corner before they turned it.

Leia couldn't believe that her father actually _hired_ someone to come after her. Money made for fickle fickle friends and uncertain allies. Her father had taught her that. Were things really so desperate that they'd come to this?

Unfortunately, she wasn't given the time to muse on this as that strange chill ran up her spine, and a moment later her clone rescuer froze up; glancing around a corner and tightening his grip on his blaster.

"Kriff," he muttered. "He's here. Turn around we'll find another..."

Just as they turned around, another patrol came down the corridor, heading their direction. Between them was none other than Captain Antilles, Leia gripped her blaster rifle tighter and reminded herself that she couldn't interfere.

"You two, come with us," the stormtrooper commander said and they were forced to fall into step along with them and round the exact corner the clone wanted them to avoid. And it only took a passing glance to know why.

There, towering over the officers and stormtroopers, stood none other than Darth Vader. Now Leia knew why the stormtrooper's demeanor had changed earlier, it was one thing to run a military raid, it was another when the Emperor's most vicious servant led the charge and breathed down your neck.

The troopers led Captain Antilles to Vader and the pair exchanged words, with Vader bearing down on the Captain. Leia bit her lip as she watched the poor Captain try to maintain his professionalism and propriety under the horrible visage of Vader. Another trooper approached and informed the Dark Lord that the Death Star plans weren't in the main computer. Leia's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't said anything about the droids! There was still hope.

But her brief moment was shattered when Vader gripped Captain Antilles by the throat and hoisted him into the air. She made a move to... stop it, attack, cry out... something! But she felt a hard hand grip her shoulder just underneath the armor. She glanced back at the clone, who just gave the smallest of shakes of the head.

Before she knew it or could even react, the air filled with the sickening crunch of bones and Vader tossed Antilles lifeless body against a bulkhead like a ragdoll. She could only stand there in stunned horror as Vader barked orders then set off down the hallway.

Moments later, she and her Clone rescuer were headed down the opposite hall. With each step any tears that she may have been holding back for the Captain dried completely, replaced with the familiar hatred she had for this empire that could so callously end an innocent man's life.

As soon as they were able, they broke away from their group of troopers and found a nearby corridor to duck into. Leia fought the urge to remove her helmet and instead leaned on the bulkhead and tried her best to find her composure, even if nobody could see it.

"As soon as we have the opportunity we'll get to the shuttle bay," the Clone said. "From there we can get transport and get the hell away from this system. Your old man better be good for what he owes me. Should have known Vader would show."

"How can you be thinking of money at a time like this? It's only a matter of time before Vader and his bloodhounds figure out that the plans are not on board. We need to do something."

"We are," the clone said. "We're escaping while we still can."

"You don't understand," Leia said. "I'm the one responsible for keeping the plans away from the Empire, we have to go down to the planet and retrieve them, the fate of the Rebellion depends on me completing my mission."

"Not happening," the clone said. "All I care about at this point is getting off this ship with my head attached to the neck and you with me so it will actually be worth it."

Leia opened her mouth to argue but didn't get a chance. The earpiece in her helmet suddenly buzzed and the CO of the helmet's previous owner demanded that she report hanger to serve as part of the search team looking for a jettisoned escape pod. Leia knew all too well what had been in that pod.

"Come on," she broke away from their hideaway.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" The clone said, falling into step beside her.

"Hanger bay," she said. "Looks like the soldier you killed to get me this disguise has been ordered planetside."

"Not happening. We need to be leaving the system, not getting ourselves stuck on a planet crawling with Imps."

"Do you really believe that we could steal a shuttle from the hanger, blast off, and actually make the jump to lightspeed before the Empire reduced us to cosmic dust or towed us back with the tractor beam?"

"I've survived worse odds."

"I'm sure you believe that, however, we're not going to risk such a course needlessly, not when far safer and successful options are available, not while the information we obtained from the Empire is still within our reach to recover."

Princess Leia smiled to herself then about faced and marched down the hall, stopping only when she heard the clone level his blaster at her and click the safety off. Even then, she did not turn around. She barely even turned her head his direction.

"What do you plan on doing once you shoot me? Attempt your doomed escape plan carrying me on your back? If so, shoot me and I wish you luck on avoiding notice."

After a few heavy seconds, she heard the safety click on and the clone mutter something in Mandalorian. He the rushed up behind her and gripped her arm as they walked.

"If we're going to do this let's do it right. But once we're planetside and away from the Imps, you do as I say, understood."

"We'll see."

* * *

Before he'd ever left Tatooine, he truly thought that Mos Eisely was a big city. Sure, he knew that it wasn't Planet Sized, like Coruscant or Nar Shadda, but in his mind it compared to Coronet or Aldera. An impression that stuck with him right until he actually _saw _Aldera when his transport from Tatooine made a stop over. Only then did he realize that Mos Eisely was barely a speck of dust in the Galactic scheme of things.

And truth be told, Biggs Darklighter wondered if he'd ever lay eyes on it again.

Tatooine's twin suns blazed a deep red as they sunk into the horizon and Biggs adjusted his cloak as he stepped into the cantina. Before he got out and saw the galaxy, a place like this might have made him bristle and twitch with nervousness. Mos Eisely was where people came if they were either running from trouble off world or fleeing from it planetside. A dive like this one was filled with galactic riffraff, but now, they were his kind of people. Sentients just looking for an escape from the Empire, even if it was at the bottom of a glass.

Biggs found himself a nice stool at the bar, taking in the assortment of tusks, snouts, and antennae that came attached to most of the bars patrons. He wondered if any of the others here were also members of the Alliance. That's what made them successful, you knew an imperial just by looking at him. Human, polished armor or pressed uniform, and an arrogant gait like they owned every piece of floor they walked on. But a Rebel could be anyone. Human, non-human, in between and no one knew everyone in the Alliance.

"What will it be friend?" the matronly barkeeper asked him, pulling his attention from the menagerie of aliens and to the main reason he came to the bar in the first place. After ordering a juma he let his mind wander back to the argument he'd had with his father earlier in the evening, shortly after he got back from Tosche Station and saw Luke.

His father just didn't understand. He knew his father hated the Empire, but he always insisted that they just needed to get along with it instead of fighting and dying. In his mind as long as you left the Empire alone, it mostly left you alone. What he didn't get was that the Empire wasn't content in leaving anybody alone. The Empire was all about controlling everyone's lives, how much they made, how much they produced, where they went. Eventually the Empire would have it's fingers in all of it.

His juma arrived and Biggs took a small sip of it before turning back to face the room. At least he finally got to the Rebellion and was finally making a difference. Which was one of the reasons he was here on Tatooine. Officially it was just to visit his family and old friends like Luke. But unofficially, he'd received orders from up top that a possible operation would be taking place nearby and they wanted him in the system as back up. Further instructions would be given out upon meeting his contact.

He just had to wait for that person to make said contact.

As the minutes ticked by, and he slowly nursed his drink until it was midway down the glass, Biggs felt himself grow wary. How long was he going to be waiting? Shouldn't his contact have arrived by now? He'd been told to look for and what the pass phrase was. But thelonger he sat there, the more he worried that something had happened. Perhaps the Empire had captured him! There was already an unusually heavy Imperial presence here, escaping would be no easy feat.

Oddly enough, that made him think of Luke. If anybody would be able to out fly the imps, it would be that kid. All the more reason Biggs was glad he wasn't involved in all of this. Luke still had some growing up to do before he would be ready for the life that Biggs lived, wondering if a platoon of stormtroopers waited around every corner, constantly wondering if the next flight would be his last.

A newcomer sat down next to him and ordered a Tarisian ale, Biggs slid his eyes toward her, careful not to make eye contact or let on that he was looking. Immediately he recognized the cloak she was wearing and the small emblazoned crest of Alderaan near the neckline. Exactly what she was looking for.

"You should try this tarisian ale," she glanced over to him.

But I much prefer Nubian wine in the springtime.," Biggs answered. Then turned and faced the woman fully. There was one thing he could say about her, she was beautiful, long white hair, crystal blue eyes, and lips that would probably melt his heart if she smiled.

"I'm Winter."

"Biggs," he said but then couldn't help himself. "You know, Tatoonie has never seen a Winter before, much less one as gorgeous as you."

She didn't so much as smile at him. In fact, if her eyes had rolled any harder they might have popped out of their sockets.

"A flyboy, should have known they'd would send me someone like you. Try to keep it professional, we don't have time for this."

"Oh... I mean..."

"Come with me, I have a private booth we can talk freely at."

Biggs followed her, passing a wookiee and his companion playing a game of sabaac with a pair of twins. Biggs managed a sneaking glance at the cards, noting the wookiee would probably win before they came to their booth; situated in their tiny corner of the cantina. Winter glanced around then pulled out a small cicular device, and placed it in the center of the table before sitting back in her seat.

"Aural scrambler," she said. "Anyone listening in on us will get nothing but a garble of words and phrases."

Biggs raised a brow. This was getting more and more interesting, this wasn't exactly a haven for the Empire, and yet she still felt the need for maximum secrecy.

"You were selected for this mission," she unceremoniously began. "Because of two reasons, your impressive flight skills, but more importantly your knowledge of the local system. We'd hoped to not have to call on you at all but that isn't an option any longer."

"What are you talking about?"

"At 0800, regional planetary time, Princess Leia intercepted transmissions with a technical readout of a new superweapon being developed by the Empire. But the transmission was traced and the Princess's ship was captured by the Empire."

"Then there was a battle in orbit this morning," Biggs rubbed his chin, his thoughts turning to Luke.

Winter raised a brow.

"A friend of mine spotted it and showed me the ship through his macrobinoculars, but the fighting must have stopped before he could get to us. All we saw were a pair of ships docking. What was the Princess even doing in this system? There's not much here and almost no Rebel presence."

"Princess Organa was instructed that should all other options be closed to her, she was to come here to seek the aide of an exiled clone wars general. With his help she would be able to travel to Alderaan and deliver the plans."

"But the Princess was captured wasn't she?" Biggs said, feeling his heart sink a bit.

"Just after the operation began, Senator Bail Organa received intelligence that the general the Princess was supposed to contact, was possibly missing or dead. It was too late to abort the mission so a more... unorthodox back up plan was devised. In the event of the ship being captured, a hired mercenary was to protect the Princess and facilitate her escape."

"You devised a way to sneak the princess from the clutches of the Empire?"

"As I said, unorthodox."

"So I assume we're to make contact with the Princess and her rescuer?"

"He's been instructed to send a signal for a rendezvous if he can get planetside or to get her straight to Alderaan if he can. So far he has not signaled and I've received no confirmation from the Alliance that they have heard from him. Until we do our mission is to try and locate the missing General."

"Very well," Biggs nodded. "When do we begin?"

"From what I understand, it's dangerous to be out at night on Tatooine."

"You're not mistaken."

"First thing tomorrow morning then," she said. "But I'll need your comm code. If I hear from the Princess then you'll need to be read at a moment's notice."

"Very well then," Biggs said. "Or you could always stay with me, there's a spare room at my parents house."

"I have my own place to stay thank you very much." She replied curtly as she collected the jamming device. "Remember you were selected for this mission because of your piloting skills. Not your domestic connections."

"Understood," Biggs let out a small breath and handed her his comm codes. "Tomorrow then?"

"Tomorrow," she nodded curtly as she stood from their booth and started toward the door with no warning or preamble.

"Wait..." Biggs caught up with her and took her by the arm, knowing it would look less suspicious if they seemed close to any onlookers. "One final question... you didn't tell me. This General that's supposedly living here on Tatooine. What's his name?"

"Not sure you would have ever heard of him," she said. "But in the mid rim and core he was once very well known. He was a Jedi, by the name of Obi-wan Kenobi."

Biggs nearly tripped over his feet at that. He gripped Winter's arm tightly as his mind shot to the old stories his father and some of the moisture farmers used to tell. The wizard, the hermit. A Jedi living near them all this time... if he was still alive.

"I don't know any Obi-wan Kenobi," he said just loud enough for her to hear him. "But I think I've heard of the guy we're looking for, and I know where to start."

* * *

Mos Eisley received countless starships into its spaceport everyday. Legitimate traders, smugglers, mechanics, sinners and saints; everything and anything pretty much went. The old spaceport had seen it all, fortunes won and lost, deals struck and then undone. And for every soul that took off and swore they'd never set eyes on it again, a passenger disembarked from a freighter or cruiser, seeing an opportunity to start new in the sand.

Even with Imperials Star Destroyers orbiting above, the spaceport's daily hustle and bustle remained largely unaffected. The Hutts saw to that. And so cargo ships entered the system with little notice or harassment.

One in particular, though completely unassuming by all outward appearances, might have actually proved interesting if anyone had bothered to find out exactly who sat in its hold.

Not that it landed with no inspection whatsoever. It just happened to pass the cursory background checks and procedures without any fuss. Upon arrival it displayed all the proper landing codes and permits and registered as a nondescript cargo vessel. Nothing out of the ordinary.

However, had anyone attempted to dig into the passenger manifest or computer files, they would receive a lockout message from the upper clearance levels of Imperial Control.

So when this ship entered the Tatooine system, it passed by the Imperial blockade with relative ease, partially because of the unique nature of the ship and also because the Empire was far more interested in keeping ships from leaving the system then letting them come in.

The cargo ship came in for a smooth landing, while maintenance drones zipped and hovered about, eager to begin any work or repairs to the ship the instant they were deemed necessary. With the docking fee already paid and the proper identification given, no one appeared in the cargo bay to greet the passenger as the ships loading ramp lowered.

The slim figure stepped into the dry, morning air of Tatooine and wrinkled her nose. There were worse places in the galaxy to be, but not many. It was a far cry from the opulent dining room in their lofty towers she spent much of her time in. And at least here, no one would be whispering behind her back about being anyone's kept woman and other less than flattering sobriquets.

But she'd have time to muse on her surroundings later. His voice still echoed in her head. She had a mission to fulfill and her instincts told her that it was only planetside where she would find her quarry.

_You will kill Princess Leia Organa_

It had been no more complicated than that. One minute she was running a training program while waiting for her computer to decode a transmission she'd intercepted from a Moff the Emperor didn't quite trust, the next she heard the order and she went to the cockpit of her vessel. The Emperor had already transmitted the hyperspace coordinates and relevant data.

Apparently Darth Vader had failed to capture the Princess, along with sensitive documents she had stolen. Whatever it was. It was more than the run of the mill assassination. Princess Leia Organa was one of the rising stars in the Imperial Senate and to order her assassination, right under the nose of Darth Vader himself could only mean that The Emperor viewed this in the highest priority.

For these such matters he turned to his Hand.

For this reason, Mara Jade stepped foot on Tatooine.

After a couple of seconds of adjusting her transport to compensate for the desert sands, she set out of the hanger, immediately blending in with the local riffraff of the spaceport. Perhaps the denizens of Mos Eisley weren't refined and polished like the upper echelons of Coruscant, but the thick layer of dust and grit seemed to make them all equal in their own way.

Except for the jawas.

Mara set out, into the city, reviewing the information she'd been given from the Emperor and what she'd learned by listening in on the com-chatter of the Imperial Star Destroyers orbiting the planet.

Organa had somehow eluded Darth Vader's clutches. She likely had the stolen data with her and she had been missing for over a day. Comm chatter Mara had listened in on told her that Vader's men had launched a mission to recover an escape pod in the desert but otherwise no further details were available.

Vader's men likely had the scent, and Mara fought back the temptation to find a way to insert herself into their investigation. Vader was not to know of her presence, but more than that... her instincts told her that if she sought the Princess, she needed to take another path.

A dry wind blew past her and she pulled a pair of goggles down over her eyes. She was going to get burnt in this sun, and there would be sand everywhere for who knew how many days, but in the end, she would carry out her master's will and Princess Leia would be dead.


	2. One morning on Tatooine

...

It felt strange for some reason, looking out over the same dunes he'd seen his entire life. Seeing those dunes that he and Luke had played on and pretended to be star pilots and galactic heroes on, and all the while there might have been a Jedi Knight out there watching them. A real hero of the Old Republic, there, practically on his front doorstep!

As Biggs looked at the dunes, neither of the twin suns having quite risen over them, he could imagine General Kenobi standing there in his battle armor. He could be standing there and just be waiting to lead them to victory over the Empire!

"Remind me again why we're visiting a moisture farm in the middle of nowhere?" Winter brought him from his musings.

Biggs looked at his beautiful if less than charming companion then at the door to the homestead that stood in front of them. "Because if we're going to find General Kenobi then this is the place to start. Almost every farmer in the Great Chott Salt Flat community has a Ben Kenobi story, but the only man I know for sure that's ever seen him is Owen Lars."

"Great," Winter sniffed the air. "You could have told me we were just stopping to ask directions from a backwater yokel."

Biggs eyed her for a minute, he still hadn't rung the bell so he figured he had time. "You sound like a Grand Moff. This backwater yokel is one of the best men I've ever known, his nephew is one of my best friends, and he's exactly the type of down to earth person that we're endeavoring to save from the Empire."

"I didn't mean-"

"Let me make something clear your _highness-_"

"I'm not royalty!"

"You might as well be with the way you're acting. Listen, Lars is a good man but he won't hesitate to throw us out on our collective asses if we give him an attitude like we think we're better than him! We have to respect these people even if they live lives we wouldn't want."

"I'm sorry," Winter said, glancing at her sand covered shoes.

"Apology accepted," Biggs said as he hit the comm switch buzzer. "Also this is important, don't mention the Rebellion."

"What? He's not a loyalist is he?"

"Hardly, but he doesn't want to get involved. Talking directly about the Rebellion will get us kicked out faster than we could make the jump to lightspeed."

"Got it."

"One more thing, you and me are a couple."

"I beg your unbelievable pardon?"

"I'm going to have to explain you somehow to Owen and Beru. You can't be a cousin since moisture farmers are tightly knit groups. So I met you at the Academy and I brought you home to meet my folks."

"This is ridiculous!"

"I tried inviting you over to my house last night so you could meet them and wouldn't have to lie, now you're just going to have to wing it."

"Of all the-"

Winter cut herself short when the door slid open and Beru stepped out. Her eyes darted back and forth before locking onto Biggs. Immediately her face lit up in surprise and delight. Biggs smiled back, as severe as Owen could be, Beru was practically everyone's mom.

"Biggs Darklighter! Is that you? What are you doing on my doorstep so early? You know Luke is still asleep at this hour! Come in, come in!"

"Actually we came to see Owen," Biggs said as he followed Beru into the dwelling. They walked right past Luke's room where he could swear he heard his friend snoring. "I'm taking Winter here on something of a grand tour of Tatooine and I thought that Owen might know a few points of interest."

"Try Corellia…" Owen's voice came as they came into the kitchen where Beru had a breakfast made. "…I hear that place is nice, a lot nicer than Tatooine."

"Mr. Lars," Biggs said.

"Darklighter," he nodded then his eyes turned to Winter. "And you are…"

For half a moment the insides of Biggs chest twisted. Given how difficult she found the idea of pretending to be his girlfriend, he worried that Winter might not play along just out of spite and that he was going to have to spin a yarn on his feet. In fact, he almost opened his mouth to do just that. Fortunately Winter decided to surprise him.

"Hi!" she beamed with a positively jolly bounce in her voice as she shook Owen's hand. "I'm Winter Retrac! Biggsy has told me all about this place! So good to meet you!"

"Apparently," Owen said with half a smile then he cast a look at Biggs and winked knowingly. "Welcome to Tatooine."

"Thank you so much!" Winter said. "Biggs is taking to see all his childhood haunts. It's really kind of adorable!"

"Adorable," Owen said. "Don't think I've ever heard that word used to describe Tatooine."

Beru suddenly placed a plate of eggs and a cup of bantha milk in front of them. Then she took a seat next to Owen and began to chat with Winter about where she was from and how she met Biggs. Again, Winter performed perfectly, to the point that Biggs almost wondered if they had been going out at some point and he'd forgotten! Winter even had their song picked out! A song he hated but a song none-the-less!

Gradually the conversation shifted to her stay on Tatooine and Biggs jumped in by mentioning a few of the places he planned on taking her to see. Beggars Canyon, the Dune Sea, The Mos Espa Grand Arena. He just needed to guide the conversation a bit closer to their actual target.

"Seems like you already have quite the itinerary," Owen said. "Not sure why you need my advice, apart from the need to watch yourselves, you'll be going dangerously close to Sand People territory."

"Sand People?" Winter said.

"Native species," Owen said, his voice growing a little dark. "Savages really, they control about half the Dune Sea and the Jundland Wastes."

"Don't worry sir," Biggs said. "I know better than to go near their territory, I want Winter to see a lot of the things Tatooine has to offer but that's not one of them."

"Good," Owen said.

"They sound very dangerous!" Winter said. "Isn't there anyone that can deal with them? Maybe live in their territory peacefully?"

Owen snorted and Biggs glanced at Winter, instantly knowing her intentions.

"Sand People would gladly flay the skin off your bones young lady, no one reasons with them or lives among them."

"No one?" Biggs took a breath, here went nothing. "What about Ben Kenobi? I always heard he would have lived out there."

Owen's eyes narrowed on Biggs for a moment then shot to Beru. Instantly the mood in the room shifted, The air suddenly felt heavy and almost hard to breathe.

"Ben Kenobi?" Winter said. "Who's that?"

"Just a ghost story," Owen said. "Everyone knows that."

"Really?" Biggs said. "My father said that you met him once."

Owen sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Darklighter, I don't know what you're playing at trying to chase after a ghost with your girlfriend but I really don't have time for it."

"But you did meet this Ben Kenobi?" Winter said, her voice starting to drop the light lilt she had used for the entire conversation. "He does actually exist?"

"No," Owen said and Beru shot him a look. "Fine… if you really want to hear a desert tall tale; there used to be a hermit named Ben Kenobi that lived in these parts. He died years ago but people have been telling ghost stories about him ever since."

"How do you know he died?" Biggs said. "There was that time that Luke and I were -"

"It was your imagination," Owen said. "I'm the last person to have actually seen Kenobi and that was years ago."

"How many?" Winter said.

Owen glared at her. "What is this? An interrogation?"

"I just want to know."

"Almost two decades ago," Owen said then stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have chores that need to get done."

"Where did he live then?" Winter stood as well, Biggs grabbed her arm to calm her down but she pulled away. "Mr. Lars sir, I need to know where he lived."

Owen didn't respond to her. Instead he turned to Biggs. "What's going on here? You're not actually taking a girlfriend on a desert excursion."

"He lived on the edge of the Dune Sea," Beru said. "At least we think he did."

"Beru!"

"Owen, we were about two seconds from blows being thrown in my kitchen. I won't have that."

"But this… fine. Yes, south east edge of the Dune Sea as near as we could tell. We never went there but he always came from that direction. But that's it, that's all we know and we wouldn't say more if we did."

"But sir-" Winter said.

"Thank you Mr. Lars," Biggs grabbed her arm again. "Thank you, that's all we need."

"Good. Now I suggest you get out of my house and think long and hard before you come back. You understand me Darklighter?"

"Yes sir," Biggs said. "I'm sorry to disturb you."

"You go following after Kenobi, you'll bring yourself to a bad end," Owen said. "Mark my words boy."

"Some things are worth getting killed over," Biggs said then took Winter by the hand and led her out. Owen followed them the entire way, standing just in front of Luke's door as if trying to physically prevent them from seeing them.

Once outside Biggs released Winter's hand and marched to the speeder they'd gotten off his father. He didn't look at her but instead climbed into the driver's seat and activated the engine. Winter took her seat in a huff and crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the dunes in the distance.

"He knows more than he's letting on!" she finally said. "Why did we leave?"

"Because that's all we were going to get," Biggs said then looked at her. "Maybe he knows who Kenobi is and doesn't want to get involved in the bigger things of the Galaxy. I don't know, but we have enough to go on."

"Fine," Winter sighed. "I take it you know the area?"

"More or less," Biggs said. "It's a big area to cover but there's not much more we can do about it."

"Right," Winter said, continuing to stare at the dunes. Biggs joined her, especially as off on the furthest dune, a sandcrawler appeared.

"What's that?" she said.

"Jawa Sand Crawler," Biggs said. "They find junk in the wastes and sell it to people. They've probably come to trade with Owen."

"Maybe we should ask them where Kenobi is."

"If I knew a word of their language I might, in the meantime we have a scanner and some directions, we should make the most out of them."

"Fine," Winter said as she fired up the scanner. "Let's get to it."

Biggs nodded, paying a final glance to the Sandcrawler before gunning the engine and leaving the Lars Homestead behind, idly wishing he'd been able to talk to Luke and get him to come with them.

* * *

"Look sir, droids!"

In spite of the heat, a chill ran up Leia's spine when she heard those words. She'd dared hope against hopes that somehow the minions of the Empire would miss any tale tell signs of the escape pod's occupants and assume it was a malfunction.

But now she stood, in the middle of the desert, surrounded by stormtroopers with only her disagreeable clone rescuer as any sort of back up. Even though she held a blaster rifle in hand, she felt completely helpless as she watched the commander examine the piece of droid chattel left from when Artoo and Threepio crashed.

"You're right," The commander said. "Looks like it belongs to an astromech of some kind."

"If it's an astro droid then it wasn't alone," another trooper said. "There are footprints all around, could be a protocol droid."

"Let's get a tracker on those prints," the commander said. "Fan out everyone! You'll search the entire damn desert with a fine toothed comb if that's what it takes to find those droids."

Leia locked her eyes on Threepio's footprints and noticed the dissimilar imprint of R2's wheels going alongside it. Her stomach sank as she looked at them, unless some sort of sandstorm or something happened, there would be a clear path leading the Empire straight to the droids.

She could only hope that Artoo found General Kenobi in time.

She looked up from the tracks as another stormtrooper approached her. For a second she questioned who it was and warded off her natural instincts to get ready to fire, but then he motioned with his head for her to follow and she knew it was her clone rescuer.

"I managed to get the ignition codes to one of the speeders," he said. "As soon as we're given a break we'll take it and get the hell out of here."

"We can't leave," Leia said. "They've found the trail of the droids, if we don't stick with them then we won't be able to stop them from recovering them!"

"Don't care," the clone said. "It's only a matter of time before they discover your little ruse princess. We're planetside and this is our best chance to escape. We'll make our way to Mos Eisely book passage on a ship and get to Alderaan."

"Don't you understand how important this is?" Leia said. "The fate of the Galaxy is at stake!"

"This isn't up to negotiation," he took a step toward her. "The Galaxy will find its fate one way or another but I can guarantee that it will find it without you if we stick around here too long."

Leia was about to protest when the commander approached them, still holding the droid part. Quickly she straightened up, trying to look as tall as she possibly could. She'd done well enough so far in convincing them she was part of the unit but the last thing she needed was scrutiny.

"Sir," the clone said.

"Stop standing around jawing!" the commander said. "The trail splits up between the two. I want the two of you following after the footprints!"

"Sir! Yes sir!" the clone saluted and Leia followed suit.

"You!" the commander took a step toward her. "I didn't hear you trooper!"

Leia almost flinched and in spite of the cooling units attached to her armor, a cold sweat broke out, running down her face underneath the helmet. One word from her mouth would be all it would take for the game to be up. She'd either be dead or made a prisoner of the Empire.

With surely only seconds to spare before the commander demanded to know her identification number, Leia did the only thing she could think of short of opening fire and getting herself and her partner killed. She raised a finger to the 'mouth piece' on her helmet and gave it a couple of taps then shook her head.

"Yeah, it seems that this soldier's vocoder is on the fritz," the clone said, quickly picking up on her meaning. "Maybe he should report to the garrison to get it replaced."

"He can do it when we get back to the ship," the commander said. "In the meantime you stick with him and try to figure out whatever comes out of his damn mouth."

The commander stormed off and Leia pushed out a pent up breath she held. Her body shivered from the cold and she slowly loosened her fingers which had curled up involuntarily. She must have done something today to make the Force happy with her.

"That was too damn close," the clone said. "Now you see why we can't stick around, yeah? Only a matter of time."

After taking a quick glance to ensure nobody was in earshot, Leia turned to her partner. "I'm well aware of the risk, in fact nothing could be more clear to me now, but that doesn't outweigh the need to get the droids before the Empire does or at least recover them from the Empire."

"You're crazy, completely mad," the clone said. "Follow me, we're not going to make a break for it yet but I want to make sure you know without a shadow of a doubt which speeder we'll be going to."

The pair made their way toward the speeder, all the while they kept their heads down as if examining the sands for tracks. The cooling unit in Leia's suit now really kicked into overdrive or perhaps she felt it more because the earlier nervous perspiration, either way she could think of few things as unpleasant as this.

"You know how to drive one of these things?" the clone said.

"Of course I do," Leia said. "I learned when I was sixteen when I stole my father's-"

"Yeah, not important," the clone said. "Just as long as you can fly it."

"What's that?" Leia motioned to a large package in the back seat.

"Insurance," the clone said. "Now come on, we need to keep blending in so-"

"Attention troops!" The commander's voice boomed out loud enough that everyone in the area could hear him. "Assemble in front of me!"

Leia turned her head to her companion but his helmet was as unreadable as hers. But deep inside, her stomach fell and a nervous tingle assaulted the back of her neck. She had a bad feeling about this.

Luckily they didn't leave too far from their speeder as all the men assembled in a line in front of the commander, with Leia and her companion taking the very end. Nearby the dewbacks grunted and growled, as though they could sense the uneasy air that had swept over the desert sands.

"I just received word from command," he said. "Three soldiers never reported in after the battle and were later found stripped of their armor. Everyone here is to remove their helmets and state their identity."

Leia might have been hearing things but she could swear she hear the clone say the word 'kriff' under his breath. If he did then she completely agreed with his sentiments. All the other stormtroopers started pulling off their helmets, all the while the commander eyed each of them suspiciously. If things had been bad for Leia when the commander wanted her to talk… now they were ten times worse.

"Don't take your helmet off no matter what," the clone whispered as he hooked his own hands under his helmet and slipped it off.

In spite of knowing what he would look like due to the nature of him being a clone, Leia couldn't help but steal a glance and take in his worn features. This clone had seen a lot of action, not surprising considering he probably served in the Clone Wars. But she didn't have time to dwell on it. Especially once the commander zeroed in on her.

"What are you waiting for soldier!" he said. "Did your broken vocoder make your hands not work?"

Leia shook her head.

"He's got a condition sir," the clone said.

"A condition? Like not following orders?"

"Adverse to sunlight, I can vouch for him sir."

"Oh you can, can you?" the commander stepped up to the clone.

"Yes sir! He's served with me across several campaigns, Bakura, Kessel, Utapau."

"Utupau huh? Well what a storied career the two of you have had, next you'll be telling me that he's the one that blasted General Kenobi off the cliff!"

"No sir, but we did get to see him fight General Grievous."

A couple of the other soldiers snickered but were instantly silenced when the commander turned on them. Finally he looked back to Leia and the clone.

"Listen soldier! I don't care if the two of you marched with Darth Vader into the Jedi Temple itself! I gave an order and that order is to remove your damn helmet! Now he's going to do as he's said or there's going to be a charred corpse in the sand!"

"More than one actually," the clone said.

Just as the commander asked a quick 'what?' a blaster bolt shot him to the ground. Leia didn't wait for the clone to tell her what to do. Immediately she opened fire as well. The troopers were, for the first couple of seconds, too stunned to do anything but be gunned down.

Using that moment to its fullest advantage, the clone ripped his thermal detonator from his belt and tossed it out in the middle of them. Neither he nor she waited to see what happened from there. Both bolted for the speeder, throwing themselves in amid a cacophony of blaster bolts, explosions and screams.

Leia jammed the ignition, even as the clone was still piling in. Instantly they shot off, headed straight for a nearby rock formation. They needed cover if they were going to have even the slightest chance of survival.

Those chances seemed to quickly diminish as blaster fire rained down on them from behind. The remaining stormtroopers had managed to get themselves organized enough to counter attack. A stray bolt jostled the craft as it hit near the engine and Leia reached for the restraints.

"Don't!" the clone said as he fumbled with the package in the back seat. "That's not part of the plan!"

"This is a plan!?" Leia said.

"A working plan! Get ready!"

"Get ready for what?"

Before he could answer the chugging sound of an engine over head interrupted. Leia glanced up long enough to confirm it was the transport they'd come in. A second later a large blaster bolt burst the ground just to their side, nearly shaking them from their seats.

"Almost there!"

Another blast came, this one closer, almost a direct hit. The impact in the sand sent shards of glass and burnt sand around them in a shower of heat. Leia tried weaving the speeder in an effort to make them a more difficult target but that thing would be able to follow them anywhere they went.

"Get ready!"

"Get ready for what?"

The ship blasted again and Leia could do nothing but scream when she realized the laser fire was going to be a direct hit. She jerked the controls but in less than a second the speeder erupted in flames, debris, and smoke.

* * *

"There really isn't anything out here but miles and miles of miles and miles," Winter said capping her brow with the palm of her hand. "You really think that General Kenobi could live out here?"

"Well it wouldn't be an easy life," Biggs took a swig from his water pouch. "But with the right equipment anybody could. And certainly General Kenobi could if half of what I've heard about the Jedi is true."

"I'm more concerned as to whether or not what Lars said is true. Do you really think Kenobi is dead?"

Biggs paused for a moment, being a rebel, he liked to think he lived in hope, but he couldn't deny the pesky possibility that Luke's uncle was right. Contemptible attitude be damned. With a sigh he stepped out of the parked speeder and looked down from the ridge they sat on.

"I can't say that it's not possible," he said. "I've always supposed that he was a ghost if anything. That's the way most of the 'Ben Kenobi' stories go."

"What do you mean?"

"Here's the thing," Biggs said. "Like Lars said, Ben Kenobi showed up nearly twenty years ago, that much is sure, and a few people like Lars can tell you about meeting him. But as far as I know the last time anyone actually saw him face to face, let alone spoke to him was... at least ten years ago, probably more."

"So why the ghost stories?" Winter sipped her water "In fact, didn't you mention something about that to Lars?"

"Yeah," Biggs said. "And my story is typical of most the Kenobi stories. "When I was a kid, Lars nephew Luke and I fell into a ravine. We were stuck down there for hours, all day actually. Then just as it was getting dark, Luke said he heard a voice calling in the wind. I thought the suns had gotten to him but Luke insisted that he could hear a voice calling to him and telling him where to go to get out."

"Interesting."

"That's not the interesting part," Biggs said. "No, the interesting part is that we followed that voice and it led us to a rock face, I was about to tell Luke he was crazy but he said the voice told him there was a series of stones that we could walk along and use as stairs, sure enough, there were the rocks. Soon we were out and able to try and go home."

"And you think it was Kenobi?"

"I didn't know what to think... But I haven't even gotten to the strange part," Biggs said. "The strange part is that I never heard this voice at all, but when we were walking away from the ravine, I looked up at the nearest sand dune and I swear I saw someone."

"Kenobi?"

"I don't know. He wore a cloak and a hood and he almost seemed to... glow. I turned to tell Luke but when we looked back no one was there."

"Hmmm."

"Hmmm? That's all you have to say to that?"

"What do you want me to say? Maybe it was Kenobi, maybe you were seeing things after the sun baked your brains, or maybe you just told me the kind of ghost story you would tell to get some girl to swoon for you."

"Are you serious?" Biggs said.

"At this point I'm not going to take anything at face value," Winter said. "Kenobi was a powerful Jedi Master, if your story is true then Kenobi is most likely alive and the two of you just imagined the rest of it. I can't imagine what interest a powerful Jedi Master would have in a couple of farm boys like you."

"I didn't imagine anything, I saw him, he had a blue glow around him like a ghost."

Winter just sighed and shook her head. "Very well Darklighter, I'll take your word for it, but I'm not getting stuck in a ravine with you just to draw out the spirit of a Jedi Master, instead we should get back to scanning for any signs of technology."

"By all means," Bigg said as he gunned the engine and started them off further toward the Dune Sea. They didn't make it more than a few kilometers before Winter rapped him on the shoulder and leaned toward the scanning screen a bit.

"Did you see that?" Winter said.

"What?" Biggs glanced from the speeder controls to her.

"There was a formation of some kind and some metal on the scanner."

Biggs slowed the speeder down a touch so he could get a better look at the scanner. He darted his eyes back and forth between the horizon and the scanner but saw nothing.

"Whatever it was it's gone now," he shrugged.

"Turn around," Winter said. "It's been the first blip we've seen in hours!"

Biggs knew this desert well; he'd travelled it countless times. He knew that when a scanner picked up a stray bit of metal it probably meant a piece of scrap that not even the Jawas thought enough of to salvage. But in the last twenty four hours he'd also come to know that Winter was hardly someone you said no to.

"Yes ma'am," Biggs said as he swerved the speeder. The sudden turn and inertia sent Winter spilling into him, pressing her warm body up against his. Instantly she jerked away then socked his arm.

"What was that for?"

"This is a search and rescue operation, not the Boonta Eve Classic! Drive like you know how!"

"Okay fine I... Wait... Boonta Eve Classic? You're into pod racing?"

"Don't be ridiculous! I just happen to know that the locals of Tatooine are enamored with that particular race."

"You just happen to know that? Fair enough, it is the most famous racing event in the sector. I had front row seats when Rikki Bawbi won the tournament last year."

"You mean Quadri..."

Biggs looked at her with an upturned brow, and she gasped. A smirk curled under hs mustache as he watched her face flush at being caught red handed.

"Alright fine!" She said. "I may watch the occasional race! So I am well aware that Ben Quadineros came out of retirement to win his first ever Boonta Eve title."

"You're a Pod Groupie," Biggs grinned from ear to ear. "I'll bet you have posters and models at your home."

"I most certainly do not!" Winter said. "But for the record, Rikki Bawbi is nothing but an arrogant, brainless son of a- there! Stop!"

Biggs flattened his foot on the brakes and the two nearly smacked their heads on the console. This time however, Winter saved the chiding remarks and focused on the scanner, trailing her finger from the singular blip near the edge of the screen to the coordinate reader. Biggs nodded at the reading then glanced out along the rocky ledges.

"Okay there it is," Winter said. "Please tell me you have a pair of macrobinoculars in this thing?"

Biggs nodded and fished them from the compartment, he then stood up in his seat and focused in the direction of the blip. Winter reached for the binoculars but Biggs just put them to his face and began scanning his eyes over the picture. All the while he heard Winter complaining that she needed to look.

"I don't see anything just yet," Biggs said.

"Then give them here so I can find it!"

"Shhhh, I'm trying concentrate."

"Ugh! I can't believe I'm stuck in the ass end of space with the likes of you."

Biggs almost chuckled at her contrition but at that moment the macrobinoculars picked something up and the auto focus feature began highlighting and filtering the image until a small adobe hovel appeared. Biggs blinked hard and looked again, it had seen better days but it was definitely man made.

"I might have to make you the navigator on my next flight," Biggs said. "You were right, there is something out there."

"Let me see!" Winter said, plucking the macrobinoculars from him. It only took her a couple of seconds to zero in on the structure; all the while Biggs capped his hand over his brow and squinted at its direction, hoping to get a glimpse with the naked eye.

"You know of anyone that lives all the way out here?" she said, not taking her eyes off the building.

"Not a one," Biggs grinned as he plopped back down in his seat. "Odds are that's where our Jedi lives!"

Winter sank back down as well and for once she shared his smile. Biggs felt his heart take maybe an extra beat or two as he gazed at her and actually enjoyed how good she looked wearing a grin. When this was over he was definitely going to ask her for a drink.

"Let's get over there and see if he's home," Biggs said then looked up at the sky. "And we better do it soon. We don't want to be out here at night. This is Sand People territory."

"Let's do it flyboy," Winter said but then in the next second the smile from her face disappeared, replaced with an expression of shock and fear. Her blaster came up and Biggs turned just in time to see the gaffi stick coming at his face.

Blaster fire collided with the tusken raider's chest and he collapsed backward just before his weapon would have connected with Bigg's head. The air filled with the calls of the Sand People and Biggs looked around to see them rushing out from hiding places in the rocks and stones.

He gunned the accelerator but a frightening snap/hiss issued from the air and the engine actually fell clean off of the speeder. Biggs drew his blaster but Winter grabbed his shoulder with one and pointed with the other, drawing his eyes to the sound of the nearby humming.

The Sand People swarmed around them and around a single solitary man, dressed like one of them complete with head and face coverings, but holding a laser sword in his hand. Biggs gripped his blaster a bit tighter and looked to Winter but she was just as clueless as he was. Biggs mind boggled at what was presented before him. General Kenobi? With the Sand People?

….


	3. The Fallen Jedi

**Chapter 3**

**The Fallen Jedi**

Fess Ilee knelt amid the orchids and ever blooming fauna in the Royal Gardens. His breathing came out in steady bursts, in sharp contrast to the strain and consternation that showed on his features. A passerby might puzzle himself to death trying to get a read on him at the moment given the conflicting body signals.

Especially since one didn't typically expect to see the sycophantic, greasy, botanist to the royal family meditating so strenuously, or at all really.

But Fess paid no heed to what anybody might have thought of him at the moment. The Dark Side of the Force covered his entire perception like a shroud. Try as he might he could not muster a single ray of light to penetrate the veil. The Force had felt thick with its imbalance for almost as long as he could remember but he'd never felt it like this before.

_Where are you Obi-wan?_ He thought into the Force, hoping against hope to get an answer. _Can you not feel it? The shift in the Force? It is at a tipping point. Either it will teeter back toward the Light or it will plummet into untold Darkness. Can you not feel it?_

As usual… no answer.

Again he cursed himself for not finding a reason for a leave of absence and tracking down the old Jedi Master himself. He should have done it years ago but something always kept him rooted on Alderaan… usually a certain rebellious princess.

He was just about to give up his mediation when a shiver ran up his spine and a tremor in the Force appeared… that tipping point was nearly here… and something had happened that… someone was near… danger…

A voice called his name, his true name Ferus Olin, not Fess Ilee his alias. For a moment he felt a glimmer of hope. Obi-wan perhaps? Then the voice came again and he realized he heard it with his ears, not with the Force, and he recognized the owner. Hardly an unwelcome visitor but not the one he hoped for at the moment.

"Ferus! Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you your Highness," Ferus opened his eyes and pulled himself to his feet to greet the First Chairman and Viceroy of Alderaan.

"No time for deference my old friend," Bail said. "We just received word that the _Tantive IV_ was caught in an asteroid storm and destroyed!"

"An asteroid storm!" Ferus said. "Impossible! Captain Antilles is one of the finest officers in the Alliance!"

"Of course we don't believe it," Bail said. "But Leia has not reported in yet, nor has Winter. I fear that the Empire has captured or killed her. I cannot help but wonder if our worst fears have come to pass."

"Sith spit," Ferus muttered. "This is all my fault. I should never have let her go on that mission alone."

"I don't think there would have been any way to convince her not to go," Bail said. "Much less convince her that the royal botanist needed to accompany her."

"Have you not heard anything from our… agent that we sent to help her?" Ferus said and the pair began walking at a brisk pace, no doubt to a briefing room where they could be certain they were not near listening ears.

"Nothing from him either, I was a fool to send him! Chances are he's taken Leia prisoner for himself and is selling her to the Hutts or even the Empire as we speak."

"What choice did we have?" Ferus said. "He knew of the mission and there was no telling what would happen if we didn't hire him at that point. We just have to trust in the Force that Leia will be alright and trust in your pocket book that he will not betray us."

The two entered the briefing room and Bail let out a sigh as he rubbed his forehead. Ferus had seen him like this much lately. He had the exact same expression on his face when Ferus informed him that he believed Obi-wan Kenobi was possibly dead or missing. The conversation that started this entire chain of events.

"I believe now more than ever that the time of your hiding is nearing its end Ferus," Bail finally said. "Especially if your suspicions about Obi-wan are correct. The Galaxy needs a Jedi to help defeat the Empire. Leia needs the Jedi."

"There's no doubting that," Ferus said. "But I don't think I'm that Jedi… I've made far too many mistakes in my life. Protecting Leia was the only thing I ever did right… up til this point."

"You're too hard-" Bail started but was interrupted when his comlink fired off, at the same time that tremor in the Force reappeared in Ferus' spine. Danger.

"_Sir! You need to evacuate! Repeat! Evacuate! The Empire_-"

The transmission ended abruptly as both Ferus and Bail stormed out of the room. As they went, Ferus reached under his shirt and released a clasp, allowing the body suit he wore on his chest to give the appearance of a pot-belly fall away and allowing him unrestricted movement.

The palace walls suddenly shook with the sound of distant explosions and blaster fire echoed down the halls. Ferus reached into an 'herb' pouch he kept on his person at all times and drew out his lightsaber.

"Ferus no," Bail said pulling out his blaster. "If the Empire truly is descending on us then they won't rest until they have me. You need to get out of the palace and try to rescue Leia."

The ground beneath them rumbled as heavy gunships swarmed by a nearby window and tie fighters screeched overhead. The Empire was hardly playing games this time. Odds were the entire palace was surrounded by now.

"I can't just leave you sir," Ferus said. "The Alliance needs you."

"The Alliance will survive without me, but everything is lost if Leia's mission is a failure! Now go and may the Force be wi-"

Another explosion rocked the floor, and threw the two men off their feet. Smoke and fire filled the room followed by the sound of heavy footsteps. Ferus pulled himself up to see stormtroopers bursting in from a hole where the nearest door used to be.

Instantly his lightsaber ignited and he launched himself into the center of them. Blaster fire volleyed all around him but he weaved past it and batted away any stray bolts that may have gotten too close for comfort. This was a standard regiment of stormtroopers, in no way were they expecting a Jedi to be there.

After knocking back the last of the stormtroopers, Ferus raced to Bail's position. A streak of blood ran down the senator's temple but apart from that he appeared unhurt. He held his smoking blaster at the ready, scanning the hallway for any more stormtroopers, but when none appeared a smile actually crawled up his face.

"Bail?" Ferus said.

"Leia is alive. That's the only explanation for the Empire descending like this right now. Leia is alive and free and the Empire is taking us as a last ditch effort to learn the location of the Alliance's base."

A small smile crossed Ferus' features as well but he didn't let it linger. That was very possible and very encouraging. Of course he left it unsaid that the Empire could also just as easily have Leia now and merely sought to eliminate an entire family of insurrectionists. Best to live in hope, especially now.

Another explosion echoed through the halls and Bail stiffened, the elation drained from his face and immediately Ferus knew the reason. He didn't wait to see if Bail followed, for he knew that he would. He just broke into a run. That explosion came from the residential suites. Bail's family was there!

Though he rushed as fast as his feet could carry him, a gnawing dread swept over him. This wasn't right. This wasn't supposed to happen. Deep down in his heart, when he meditated, he knew that events were supposed to have transpired differently, even if he didn't know exactly how.

A moment before he reached the suites, another tremor in the Force hit him. This one was nothing but terror, hate, and darkness. He only knew of one thing in all the Galaxy that produced that sort of feeling, he became accustomed to it during his time as a mole with the Imperial Inquisitors.

The Dark Side of the Force.

Ferus burst into the room and immediately reeled back just a bit, his lightsaber igniting as he found the horrible source of the tremor.

Clothed in black, standing a head taller than anyone else in the room, and unmistakable artificial respiration that was at once deep but also empty; no one ever wondered whether or not they were looking at Darth Vader.

Bail came in a second later, freezing in step as he saw the Sith Lord standing amid his troops, many of them threatening his sisters with the end of blaster rifles. Darth Vader turned on them, his black cape billowing behind him as he approached, flanked by his men.

"Darth Vader," Bail said, putting affected bravado in his voice. "Only you would be so bold. The Imperial Senate will not stand for this attack on Alderaan's sovereignty."

"Don't act so surprised your highness," Vader said. "You've only escaped the judgment of the Empire by sheer luck the last time we spoke. Now there will be nothing and no one to save you."

"I might have something to say about that Vader," Ferus said and brandished his lightsaber.

Before Bail could stop him, he lunged at the Sith Lord intent on engaging him once and for all in single combat. But like so many things in his life, he was met with disappointment. Invisible hands latched around his neck and closed in on his windpipe. He focused his mind on breaking Vader's hold but it was too late. He couldn't even cry out in pain as the lightsaber ignited through his abdomen.

All he could do was stare at his own horrified expression reflected in the lens's of Vader's mask. All he could do was realize this was the end for him.

Only then did the hold on his throat lessen and Ferus dropped to the ground, feeling his life slip away as Vader advanced on Bail. To his credit the Senator ignored the Sith Lord and slipped his hand behind Ferus' neck. Even now Bail Organa was proving himself one of the few true friends Ferus had ever had.

"You're coming with me," Vader said to the Senator and Ferus' eyes drooped.

"It doesn't matter what you do to us," Bail said but looked to Ferus. "Princess Leia is safe and you don't have the stolen transmissions."

Ferus nodded even as his chest shuddered with each breath. Even with the pain he found himself smiling up at Vader, and then he felt that tiny sliver of light he'd been looking for, breaking through somewhere out there in the stars. The Empire had already lost and they didn't even know it.

And perhaps it was just the dreams of a dying man, but just before everything went black, he thought he heard Obi-wan's voice welcoming him to the Force.

* * *

In all his life, Biggs had never seen so many gathered Sand People. Of course, never once in his life had he actually been taken to a tusken raider camp. So seeing so many of them shouldn't have come as a surprise.

But the novelty of such a thing was somewhat lost on him considering they were leading him into the camp with leather bonds strapped around his wrists, and if he even looked back to see if Winter was okay the nearest guard would jab him in the back with his gaffi stick.

From the moment they'd been captured to the setting of the suns, they'd marched like this; single file, heads forward, complete silence. Never once did their captors offer them food or water and at times Biggs worried he might pass out. But finally the suns set and they entered the tusken camp.

The women and children, at least Biggs assumed they were given their outfits and size, rushed to greet the warriors and for half a second Biggs could forget that they were prisoners and just marvel at how… human their interactions seemed.

He didn't get much time to ponder on that though, mere moments after entering the village they were corralled into a small tent. For a moment Biggs hoped that they would be leaving them alone so he could finally check in on Winter but the guards stood there among them. Biggs had to settle on meeting Winter's eyes and watching for her small quick nod as an acknowledgment of her well being.

Any relief soon drained when a couple of the tusken guards broke away from the others, muttering something in their guttural language. For some reason they seemed fixated on Winter, occasionally pointing at her before grunting or howling at each other. Finally one approached her and reached out to her hair.

Winter flinched away but the raider roared something and grabbed her shoulder. Biggs tried rushing to her but the other guard shoved a gaffi stick up against his gut. He could only watch as the tusken raider lifted a few strands of Winter's platinum hair in between his fingers and held it up in front of his goggles.

"Yes," Winter said. "I have amazing hair, now let me go."

The raider ignored her protestations and warbled something at his companion before collecting a bunch of her hair in his hand and pulling out a knife. Winter didn't wait another second, instantly her fist shot out, connecting with the side of the raider's face and knocking him to the ground.

For a moment Biggs worried that the raider would retaliate violently and it even looked like he might, but the rest of the warriors around them let out howls that sounded oddly like laughter and held him back. Biggs couldn't help but smile, apparently Winter had figured out how to make friends with the natives.

But before anybody could invite them for drinks or howling contests or whatever sand people did, their chieftain entered the tent. Biggs and Winter both straightened up as their eyes went to the lightsaber clipped on his belt. The man they were searching for, who hadn't said a word to them since he helped the sand people capture them was right there.

He said something in the sand people tongue and the collected warriors slipped out of the tent, leaving the three of them alone. Biggs managed a smile and tried to think of the best way to start with this. He had so many questions, on the forefront though was what was a famous Jedi Master doing living amongst the sand people.

"You are not the typical riff raff from Tatooine," the Jedi said to them, his face completely unreadable since it remained covered by the typical sand people head coverings and goggles.

"No, we're not," Winter said.

"And that is the only reason you are alive," the Jedi said. "For I seek news of the Empire and I want to know what it is you were doing out here."

"We came to find you," Biggs said.

"Me?" the Jedi's head tilted slightly. "How did you even know I existed?"

"Your former confederate, Bail Organa sent us on a mission to recruit you to the Rebel Alliance against the Empire. He knew you were here."

"Bail Organa?" the Jedi said. "You're lying."

"Lying? No!" Biggs said. "Bail Organa is the leader of the Rebellion! We need your help."

"Bail Organa has no idea I am alive! What trickery is this? How did you know I was here!?"

"We're telling the truth!" Winter said. "You must help us! The Empire is growing too powerful!"

"I must do nothing," the Jedi said and his hand hovered near his lightsaber. "I thought that maybe you were emissaries from the Jedi but now I wonder if you're not Imperial Spies."

"General Kenobi, we swear that we're not-"

"Wait… what did you call me?"

"General Kenobi?" Biggs said. "You are Obi-wan Kenobi the Jedi Knight that served in the clone wars."

"Obi-wan Kenobi," the Jedi's hand trailed away from his lightsaber and his voice drifted away slightly. "Now that's a name I have not heard in a long time… a long time."

"I doubt anybody on this planet would have even heard of you before," Winter said. "But we've been sent to recruit you Master Kenobi."

The Jedi let out a chuckle. "I'm afraid child, you are mistaken. I am not Obi-wan Kenobi."

"What?" Biggs said, though after a moment of shock he realized that he had jumped to that conclusion based purely on seeing the laser sword. "Well then who are you?"

"My name is A'Sharad Hett I was once a Jedi Knight like my father, like General Kenobi, but no longer."

Winter shook her head in disbelief. "Then… where is he? Where is Obi-wan?"

"He's dead," A'Sharad Hett said. "He died some years ago."

Biggs didn't even need to look at Winter to feel her disappointment at the news, he had much the same sinking feeling in his heart as well. Actually more of a plummet in the pit of his stomach than a slow sinking. Either way, the word 'failure' flashed through his mind as he tried to process the news.

"You know this for certain?" Winter finally said. "You can confirm that Obi-wan Kenobi is dead?"

"Have you not heard of the great Jedi Purge child? Do you really think that the Empire would have let such a prominent Jedi Master, a member of the Council no less, live? He died in the Purge… unless you know something different."

Biggs looked to Winter, she didn't smile or make any noise of excitement but the glint in her eyes said everything. Hett didn't know! Which meant their search hadn't ended after all!

"He survived the Purge Master Hett," Winter said. "Bail Organa can confirm as much. He came to Tatooine in exile when he failed to stop the Sith."

"Did he now…" Hett said and began pacing. "He came here… you're certain?" "100%" Winter said.

"Strange that I did not see or sense him then… unless… yes… yes… that would explain things…"

"Explain what?" Biggs said.

Hett turned his head to him then stalked closer. In spite of the face coverings, Biggs could feel the strange Jedi's eyes on him. What was he doing?

"I can see the sands on you boy… she is an offworlder but you… you are a son of the suns are you not?"

"I… am," Biggs finally said. "I'm from the Darklighter famil-"

"_Darklighter_!" Hett hissed. "Your kind has murdered countless of my kin!"

"Out of self defense!" Biggs said. "We've always tried to steer clear of the Sand People!"

"Ah, the usual excuse," Hett waved a dismissing hand. "Were it not for the more important task at hand I would make an example out of you and send the remains back to your father."

"What task?" Winter said.

"Darklighter," Hett ignored her. "As a resident of these parts, surely you know the legends of the Desert Ghost."

"The Ben Kenobi stories," Biggs nodded.

"That hovel we caught you near… if what you say is true, then Obi-wan may have lived there."

"Really?" Biggs said. "We were almost there?"

"You used the past tense," Winter said. "Why?"

"Because what I said about Kenobi is true. He is dead and his spirit haunts that place."

"What?"

"There is but one place in all the deserts that my people fear to tread," Hett said. "And it is that place. They tell stories of a strange figure that drives all that venture to that place away. Some have even been known to go there and never return."

"What do you mean?" Biggs said. "Isn't it possible that Kenobi lives there and uses his Jedi abilities t o spook anybody that comes near?"

"No, because I have been there," Hett said. "It is an abandoned hovel nothing more. Yet the Force is strong in that place. It is a place of great darkness and even greater sadness. It is a place of the Dark Side of the Force"

"Then it couldn't be Kenobi," Winter said. "He was a devoted Jedi."

"Perhaps when he came to Tatooine, but he must have succumbed to grief over the loss of the Jedi. His presence hauntsthat place, it is the only explanation."

Biggs again turned to Winter and tried not to show it but he feared the Jedi was correct. Every story he knew about Kenobi made him seem like some sort of phantom. Now they were hearing about this place that even the tusken raider's feared to go. It all seemed to gel together.

"Master Hett," Winter said. "We are on a mission vital to the survival of the Rebellion against the Empire. We _must_ go to that dwelling and see for ourselves if Master Kenobi lived there."

"That is impossible," Hett said.

"Why?" Biggs said. "We're not afraid!"

"Your fear toward the dead is of no consequence. You should have feared the Sand People more."

"You're kidding me," Winter said.

"You have violated our lands, attacked our people and disrespected the sacred desert. For that there is but one punishment. You will be executed at dawn."

"You can't do this!" Biggs said. "You don't understand! We have to find Obi-wan!"

"And you will," Hett said as he went to the tent door. "In the Netherworld of the Force."

* * *

Nightfall.

Perhaps there had never been such a more blessed thing than nightfall.

The twin suns had sunk below the ridges more than a couple of hours before and the intense heat of the desert slowly drifted away, even leaving enough of a chill that one would consider pulling a blanket over one's shoulders.

Which Leia Organa would be happy to do if she had a blanket, or even a shawl. But as it was, all she had was damaged and broken stormtrooper armor. In the hours of walking in the sun, she'd learned to ignore the pain in her shoulder when the cracked armor would rub against the blast wound she'd received. But she knew she would feel it in the morning.

Her companion would fair much worse she supposed.

He said nothing as he walked ahead of her, but she could see the slight limp in his leg. And the scorch marks all over his armor surely didn't bode well for his over all state of being. In fact he hadn't said a word to her since their escape. No words except for a small, satisfied 'good' when they finally reached the rocks and ridges they'd been walking toward all day.

Now they wound their way slowly amidst jutting stones and loose rocks. Every now and again either she or he would kick an errant stone and send it clacking against the others, causing echoes that made both of them pause and back toward the canyon walls.

Leia's feet ached but she was quite determined to not stop or even ask for a break. The clone had once again saved her life and she owed it to him to let him take the lead in getting them to safety… at least for now.

"We need to find a place to make camp," the clone said abruptly. "Find a cave or something."

"He talks!" Leia said.

"Only when there's something to say," he replied.

Leia shook her head as she looked at him. She'd disregarded her helmet as soon as the sun went down, but he stubbornly refused to take his off, even with half of it burnt to a crisp in the explosion. This guy didn't like to be seen, that much was for sure.

"Well I don't see any caverns nearby," Leia said. "But I'll keep it in mind for later."

"You're going to need to cut your hair," he said as he looked around.

"What?"

"Before we get back to civilization you'll need to cut your hair. The Empire probably thinks you're dead now but we're not going to take the risk of someone recognizing _those_."

Leia rolled her eyes at the reference to her hair buns but inwardly had to agree with the clone. If they got back to civilization it wouldn't do to be recognized on the spot. Not when they'd been put in the clear with their antics during the escape.

"Where did you get the jet pack anyway?" Leia said, thinking to the way they'd streaked across the desert, half on fire the instant the speeder exploded. No doubt they looked like flying debris to anyone watching.

"Grabbed it just before we got on the shuttle to head planetside. Figured it would come in handy. It did."

"No argument there," Leia said. "You could have told me you had… did you hear that?"

The clone looked around before turning back to her. "Hear what?"

Leia turned her head up to the edge of the ridge surrounding them. "I thought I heard something…"

"Something what?" he took a step closer to her. "A rock falling? A person?"

"It's nothing," Leia said and started walking. "Just the wind."

The clone grabbed her arm, gripping tight enough that Leia almost felt it through her armor.

"What did you hear?"

"My name," she finally said. "I thought I heard someone calling my name."

"Your name."

"I told you it was nothing."

"You didn't hit your head in the escape did you?"

"No! I…"

"What?"

"I…"

"What!?"

"You seriously didn't hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Someone called out to me… I'm supposed to hug the canyon wall."

"You're crazy."

Leia ignored him and walked to the canyon wall, she pushed her hands against the rough stone and then began following close to it, cautious to step over any large rocks that she might see. Not that that was an easy task, no moon or starlight reached this point. All she could do was fumble around a bit hoping to not break her feet against the stone.

"You realize how ridiculous you look."

"Shhh!" Leia said.

"You're seriously going to do what a voice only you can hear tells you to do?"

"Shhh!" Leia whispered as loud as she dared, grabbing the clone and pulling him up to the stones. "Don't say anything, don't do anything! Look up to the ridge, three o'clock."

The clone tilted his head for a moment but then did as he was told. Immediately he straightened his body against the stone. He saw it too. A lone figure up top, and in the glint of the moon, the sight of a blaster barrel could be seen aiming downward at them.

Leia nodded when he looked to her. He then did something that surprised her. He quietly removed his helmet and then began working on the chest piece of his armor. Leia took a breath and then did the same. The white, plastoid armor would give them away easily if it hadn't already. Their only chance was to hope that the potential sniper didn't have night vision and that the black jumpsuits underneath the armor would give them enough cover to hide with.

Once the armor was properly doffed Leia proceeded to follow along the rockface, just liked the voice had instructed her. At this point she didn't question where it came from, not when it led them away from the sniper.

But as they continued she would glance up at the ridge and cringe. The sniper kept following them, aiming the blaster downward every now and again as if to find them. How long would they be followed? Until daylight when they wouldn't be able to hide?

The clone kept a grip on her arm, occasionally pointing to a fallen rock they needed to avoid. At least he did until they came up to the boulder. The massive rock sat right in front of their trail. Too smooth to climb but large enough that if they went around it, they would expose themselves.

Leia searched for any other avenue of escape, any route that might allow them to stay in the shadows but none appeared. She tried to 'listen' for further instructions but nothing came. The clone had put himself on one knee so he could aim his blaster. But Leia knew that the chances of him making the shot would be slim. And give away their position.

She grabbed his shoulder and shook her head but he ignored her and continued to train his blaster on the figure up on the ridge. Leia bit her lip and turned to face the boulder, feeling for any divots or hand holds she might find. She glanced back at the clone who looked ready to pull the trigger.

_Below_

The voice came to her so suddenly that Leia stiffened up. She didn't wait for further advice, she instantly fell to her knees and groped the ground for… whatever it was that was below.

"Be ready to run," the clone whispered.

"No!" Leia said "Stop… follow me."

She didn't wait to see if he would do as she said. Instead she flattened herself against the ground and pushed forward. Just below a jutting rock formation was a small cavern of some kind. No… not a cavern… a tunnel. It kept going the more Leia pushed forward, noticing the gradual incline even as she also noted how tight it was. With every couple feet forward she could feel it pressing on her back, even making her have to exhale all the breath in her lungs at one point to move.

For a few moments she considered going back but she realized she didn't even know if she could at this point. She might hit the clone and even if she did get back out there… a sniper waited for them. Forward was the only way.

Eventually the incline increased and with it, an opening appeared ahead. Leia did her best to keep her breath calm as she inched upward, feeling as though she might slip at any moment. She tried to listen for blaster fire or for the sound of her companion making his way up the tunnel but she heard nothing.

Finally her fingers clasped the edge of the tunnel and she dragged herself out of the hole. Flopping onto the sand and staring up at the stars. She heaved welcome breaths of fresh desert air before looking first to the horizon, noticing an outcropping of rocks nearby that would shield them from any sniper's view. Then she looked the other way and saw the hovel.

Leia sat up even as she heard the clone nearing. A strange adobe home in the middle of the desert. How did it even get out here?

A strange wind kicked up and Leia thought she heard a humming noise. The clone managed to pull himself out of the hole but Leia was on her feet, staring at the hovel, looking for any sign of life inside. It was as dark as everything else around them.

"What is this place?" the clone said.

"I don't know…" Leia said. "But… it seems somehow familiar…"

"Familiar…what… what does… that…"

Leia turned to him just as he flopped over on his side. She bent down, worried that he might have injured himself somehow but he looked to be simply sleeping. Not just sleeping, but sleeping like the dead. He even snored when she started shaking him.

When nothing she did roused her companion, Leia looked back up to the hovel and felt her breath catch when she spotted a faint blue light through a window.

Forgetting her companion, Leia crept forward, stepping lightly as she approached the hut. For a few moments she considered going back and grabbing the blaster she knew the clone had brought up with him but instead she just kept walking until she reached the doorway.

The first thing she noted was the faded scorch marks. Something had blown this door wide open years ago. She entered into the main room to find a somewhat spartan dwelling place. A couple of chairs, a small table, a kitchen area and another couple of rooms attached to the main one. All of it caked in a layer of dust.

No one had been in this place in years.

She looked around, there were no signs of tracks in the dust save for hers. Not even animal tracks. Nothing dared come in here… except for her. Her eyes went up and she noticed the blaster marks on the ceiling and along the walls. A chair nearby was completely demolished, cut through clean and as if it got in the way of the struggle that had taken place here.

A fight had taken place but she saw no sign that anything had been disturbed otherwise and no sign as to who might have lived here. There certainly wasn't any light in here, she doubted that there was any electricity to be had. She could see no reason why she had been led to this place.

Then her eyes fell to the nearby chest.

Instinctively she knelt beside it and ran her finger over it, cutting a clean line through the dust. She moved her fingers to the edge of the lid and pulled only to find it locked. Leia looked around for a key or something to pry it open but when none appeared she turned her attention back to the lid.

Her eyes spied a series of letters. She ran her hand over it to clear the dust but then jumped back when they lit up in an electronic sequence. It was a security system. One designed to keep the chest locked and only open given the right identification.

And apparently the identification process had begun because the numbers and flashed and processed. Leia leaned up on her feet so she could look out a window. The clone still slept and the night remained completely still.

When she turned her eyes back to the identification system she gasped when she saw it had formed a name. 'Leia Organa'. She heard a click and the lid popped open just a bit. Leia covered her mouth when she realized that a strange box in an abandoned hut, in the middle of a desert world on the outer rim was keyed to identify _her_!

How was this possible?

Leia hooked her fingers under the rim of the lid and pulled it up. She found no treasures or jewels or anything one might keep in a box with such an intricate locking mechanism. Instead she found old journals, various knick knacks, some clothes, and some strange cubes.

The wind stirred and Leia looked over her shoulder. She was alone. Leia turned back to the box and felt around inside for anything she might have missed. She reached under some robes and her hand found something metallic. Carefully she clasped it then drew it from the box. Instantly recognizing it when she saw it.

A lightsaber.

The weapon of the Jedi.

She looked around again. Was this… was this the home of Obi-wan Kenobi?

The lightsaber felt… warm to the touch for some reason and Leia felt her thumb over the activator switch. She didn't bother to see if anyone was watching, she merely depressed the switch and watched as the cyan blade leaped from the hilt, filling the room with its light… a light not dissimilar to the one she'd seen before she entered the hovel.

Leia gave the lighsaber a couple of experimental swishes before switching it off. Then she nearly dropped it again when she realized the light in the room hadn't faded with it.

The light had not faded because right in front of her stood a translucent figure casting off a bluish glow on the walls around him. Leia almost flicked on the lightsaber again but something about the figure radiated calm. She peered at it and her eyes widened when it took the form of a man. A man dressed in Jedi robes and sporting a beard.

The spirit… or figure or whatever it was approached with a look of infinite calm and even relief on his face. As if he'd been waiting a lifetime for this moment. He held his hands tucked in his robes sleeves as he neared her. Leia had never believed in ghosts but she couldn't deny what was in front of her.

"_Hello Leia_," the Jedi said, his voice echoing slightly. "_I can't tell you how glad I am to see you here._"

"Obi-wan?" she breathed. "Obi-wan Kenobi?"

"_No_," he shook his head. "_In life, my name was Qui-gon Jinn. I was Obi-wan's Jedi Master. I have come to you tonight because you, Leia Organa are Obi-wan's only hope._"


	4. Tales of a lost knight

"Obi-wan Kenobi needs my help?" Leia said.

The ghostly Jedi merely nodded.

"I came here to Tatooine looking for him," Leia said. "I need _his_ help! Now you're telling me that something has happened to him?"

"_Look around you Leia_," Qui-gon said. "_What do you see_?"

Leia raised a brow then reluctantly did as she was told. Who was she to argue with a ghost? Her eyes went straight to the carbon scoring on the walls from the blaster shots, as well as the long scorch marks that she now recognized as lightsaber burns. Her mind came to the same conclusion she'd reached when she first entered the hovel.

"There was a struggle, a fight," Leia said. "A fight between General Kenobi and an unknown attacker."

"_Again you are correct_," the ghost said.

For a moment she almost went to her next question, but instead she just shook her head and then peered at the spirit in front of her. "I don't understand what's going on. You said that in life you were Qui-gon Jinn, how can you be speaking to me from beyond the grave?"

"_All things are possible through the Force_," Qui-gon said. "_And though I accepted my death at the hands of a Sith Lord, I did not become one with the Force, for I had learned how to retain my individuality upon death. It is known as the Way of the Whills._"

"But you _are_ dead?"

"_The Force is Life, but in terms that are relevant to your understanding, yes_."

"Is… is Obi-wan Kenobi dead?"

At this the spirit furrowed his brows and sighed. "_I do not believe so_."

"You don't believe so?" Leia said. "You mean you don't know?"

The spirit regarded her for a second then sighed. "_Even though I am one with the Force, my sight is not infinite. I cannot sense Obi-wan in the Force, it is though he simply isn't there._"

"Then he is dead."

"_No_," Qui-gon shook his head. "_If he was dead I would have felt his passing. I would have felt him join with the Force. Instead, when I search out for my padawan, I sense… nothing._"

"So Obi-wan is just… gone," Leia said. "Gone with the possibility that he might be dead but you can't tell."

"_Essentially yes_," Qui-gon said.

"Well that's great," Leia pursed her lips. "Some kind of spirit guide you are."

The corner of Qui-gon's mouth quirked up in a smile and he let out a small chuckle. Leia could only blink at the sight. She was having a conversation with a dead Jedi and he was amused by her sarcasm. This was beyond anything she could have ever imagined.

"_While I do not know what has become of Obi-wan I can tell you some of what happened here, though you ascertained much already_."

"He was attacked… by who? How long ago?"

"_Some seventeen years ago, while Obi-wan had just begun his exile, he was caught unawares by a battle droid of some kind. The fight was brief for Obi-wan had been in the middle of mediation, learning the Way of the Whills, and this was like no droid ever seen before_."

"The droid took him then?"

"_I believe it did_," Qui-gon said. "_Though where to I cannot say. I followed his presence until he simply vanished from my sight_."

"Seventeen years?" Leia said. "Obi-wan has been missing for seventeen years? And in all of that time you could not find him?"

"_I searched for him as well as I could, even communed with a fellow Jedi and the Force itself but to no avail. The Dark Side clouds everything. When I realized that I could not find him in this form I resolved to return here and tie myself to this place. To protect it from intruders and continue to Obi-wan's vigil_."

"It was you that I heard," Leia said. "You guided me here."

"_And I put your companion to sleep so that we may commune uninterrupted_."

Leia sighed and sat herself down on the chest. "Well at least I can thank you for that. I'm not sure what my father was thinking in hiring that man."

To her surprise, the spirit took a few steps and then 'sat' next to her on the chest, holding is hands on his knees. Leia pursed her lips as she noticed she could see right through his legs to the chest and floor below.

"_Your father did what he felt was necessary to save you. And now it is for you to do what is necessary to save Obi-wan_," Qui-gon said.

"I can't," Leia shook her head. "I came to this place because I needed _his_ help! The Empire has created a weapon of such horrific power… I fear that only with the aid of a Jedi will we be able to stop it!"

"_I am well aware that it was not in your mind to have to rescue a Jedi Master but that is the hand you have been dealt. All of us have a destiny Leia, it is up to us to decide if we will answer the call or not_."

"But you don't understand, I can't leave Tatooine until I've recovered the data we stole from the Empire. If I don't complete my mission the Empire will be unstoppable," Leia said.

"_That's your pragmatic side talking_," Qui-gon said. "_But believe me when I say that rescuing Obi-wan is of the utmost importance, even more important than finding your droids._"

"Even if I decided to go looking for him, how am I going to find him?" Leia said. "You're the spirit of a deceased Jedi Master and you couldn't find him!"

"_The Force will guide you_," Qui-gon said. "_If you listen, It will tell you what you need to do in order to find Obi-wan and save the Galaxy_."

"The Force?" Leia said. "I think you have me confused with someone else. I'm the daughter of the Royal family of Alderaan, I'm a senator in the Imperial Senate and I serve the Rebel Alliance, but I know nothing of the Force."

"_You are the _adopted_ daughter of the House of Alderaan_," Qui-gon said. "_Your father was a powerful Jedi Knight. You have inherited his gifts and connection to the Force. If you can but still your mind, you will feel it calling to you, just as that lightsaber, your father's lightsaber, felt warm to the touch._"

"My father?" Leia said. "You knew my father?"

"_Yes_," Qui-gon said as his voice grew wistful. "_He was a brave boy, kind and compassionate. One of the finest pilots I've ever known and always willing to give without thinking of himself_."

"I've… I've never heard anything about my father," Leia scooted closer to the phantom. "What happened to him?"

Qui-gon's eyes trailed from her to the window, where the night's sky was beginning to grow a pale blue. Dawn was coming. He sighed and then stood and faced her.

"_Time is growing short_," he said. "_Your destiny lies at a crossroads today Leia_. _You will have a choice to make, the outcome of neither is certain and both carry a terrible price. On the one path you can save your droids but you will risk the complete destruction of the Jedi and the last hope of the Old Republic. On the other path you will risk the Empire gaining access to the stolen plans but will lead you to Obi-wan and the return of the Jedi. You must choose_."

"I can't make a choice like that! Tell me which one I should do!" Leia stood but already the spirit was going more translucent, harder to see.

"_Trust in your instincts Leia_," Qui-gon said as his voice began to echo further. "_I have waited seventeen years for this day and now it is come and I can release myself from this place_."

"Qui-gon! You can't leave yet!" Leia rushed at the spirit but he simply vanished.

"_The Force will be with you Leia. Always_."

* * *

Even sitting in a thick canvas tent, with no exposed sunlight, Biggs knew dawn was approaching. Growing up in the desert you always knew when the heat was starting to change, when light was just beginning to brighten up around you. As a boy he always dreaded the sunrise because it meant getting up with the twin suns and starting to work on the moisture farm. Now… he'd trade even the worst day of farming for this.

He and Winter had said very little to each other in the course of the night. Partially because if they spoke too loudly, a guard would come in and threaten them, at one point even throwing Biggs around a bit. The other reason they spoke little was no more complicated than the fact that they could very well be dead in the morning and neither really knew how to handle it.

Sure, in the service of the Alliance they'd both faced death countless times, but never pending execution. Before it was always the outside possibility of death that just hovered over them, waiting for them to get sloppy or unlucky; now they actually had a deadline.

But with dawn coming and no plan in his own mind as to how to escape, Biggs knew he had to say something.

"They'll be coming for us soon," he said.

"Yes," Winter nodded.

"Um… do you have any ideas on… I mean… there's got to be a way out of this."

"Of course there is. Unfortunately that would appear to be death."

"Okay… sorry I asked."

"I had supplies I normally conceal on my person that would aid in escape," Winter said. "But they were in the speeder when we were captured and I didn't have time to retrieve them."

"What about this Hett fellow?" Biggs said. "There has to be a way to reason with him."

"I don't have to be a Jedi to tell when someone's gone off his rocker. We'd have as much luck reasoning with the desert. All we can do is wait."

"Wait until they kill us?"

"Possibly, or wait until an opportunity for escape presents itself."

"Well I don't want to wait around for them to come and bash my brains in!" Biggs said. "What if I hide by the door flap and then jump the guard when he comes in?"

"Typical flyboy," Winter said. "They left our gear at the speeder, we have no weapons and even if you could overpower the guards, we still have an entire tribe of sand people that would be attacking us, not to mention a crazed Jedi. You need to learn a thing or two about patience."

"I don't have that much time left to learn _anything_," Biggs said. "Winter, we have to-"

The door flap waved open and A'Sharad Hett entered, cutting Biggs short. With him, stood a small group of warriors; clearly an execution squad given the way they held their gaffi sticks. Biggs stood but immediately he felt his throat clench together and he struggled to breathe. The next thing he knew his feet dragged off the ground and he hovered a few inches above the ground.

"Let him go!" Winter was also on her feet, only stopped by a pair of gaffi sticks crossing in front of her.

"I could sense the violence in his heart, he was going to attack," Hett said then loosened his hand and Biggs dropped to the dirt. The guards then allowed Winter to push past them so she could reach him.

"Master Jedi," Winter said as she checked Bigg's for sign of injury. "I beg you on behalf of the Rebel Alliance to let us go! You don't have to kill us."

"The laws of my people demand it," Hett said. "For too long have I remained passive, content to maintain an uneasy peace with the outlanders. Once, I had further aspirations but a vision in the Force stopped me. Perhaps it was Kenobi. Now I feel as though those compunctions are gone."

"What… what do you mean?" Biggs managed to sit up.

"The outlanders and the Empire have tarnished this planet for too long. I intend to rally the Children of the Sand and drive them all off."

"You're crazy," Winter said. "You're going to drive the Empire off with a bunch of desert nomads?"

"And the Force," Hett said. "This morning we will inaugurate our campaign by spilling your blood upon the sand. My scouts have already indicated a rival tribe is close by, we will recruit them with tales of your death then we will begin with the outlying moisture farms."

"Luke…" Biggs muttered then turned his gaze back on Hett. "Can't you see that we are trying to get rid of the Empire too?"

"Only to replace it with another regime," Hett said. "No, I'm through debating, and waiting. You will either come with me now or you will be killed on the spot."

Biggs and Winter exchanged glances but knowing they had little choice, the two stood and could only watch each other helplessly as their hands were bound again by the leather cords. All the while Hett tapped his hand against his lightsaber like something about the entire proceeding made him nervous.

Once they were bound, the guards pushed them until they fell into a single file line with them and exited the tent. One of Tatooine's suns barely poked up over the horizon and the tuskens led them through the maze of different tents until they came to a central area where the entire tribe gathered.

The moment they entered the circle the tuskens lit up in a roar, pumping their fists in the air and howling as loud as they could. Hett held his gaffi over his head and the sand people only cheered more. Even with his face covered, the captives could tell that he was soaking it up.

Hett took his gaffi stick up in both hands and the crowd silenced. The guards then grabbed Biggs and Winter and shoved them front and center. Hett walked circles around them, all the while grunting and growling out something in their language. He had to stop a few times when the crowd erupted into cheers and waved their weapons in the air.

Finally Hett turned back to them and gestured with his gaffi. Biggs almost decided to make a run for it, but he knew that he wouldn't make it more than a few steps and he couldn't just abandon Winter. But still he cursed himself a little, always hoping that when he died he actually would have been smart enough to figure a way out of it.

The guards pushed them to their knees and Hett howled again, gripping his gaffi at the ready. But before he could go any further Winter stood up. The guards rushed at her but Hett held out his hand and they stopped.

"Master Jedi," Winter said. "I… you've obviously rendered your judgment against us and intend to carry out the sentence yourself, a very noble gesture. While I have no wish to die and carry no love for you as my executioner I can at least appreciate the nobility of performing the act yourself…"

"Indeed," Hett said. "But you didn't stand to tell me this."

"No," Winter said. "I stood because I want to ask… beg even for a last request. Surely you can grant me that."

"Depends on what it is."

"I only wish to say goodbye to my comrade."

"Do you think I'm a fool? I know trickery when I see it."

"No trick," Winter said. "You can stand next to us with your gaffi ready and listen to every word."

Hett considered this then glanced to the warriors nearest him. After a moment of consideration he turned to them and muttered something, then he moved to the crowed and bellowed loudly. When he finally turned back to them, amid howls and shouts from the sand people, he simply gave Winter a nod of the head.

Biggs watched as Winter knelt down in front of him and his mind raced with thoughts of what she actually intended to do. Was this really a good bye? Where they going to try and make a break for it themselves? His mind drew a blank.

"Darklighter," she said as she scooted a little closer to him, taking his hands in hers. "I want you to know that even though we've only known each other for a short amount of time… I really don't like you very much."

Biggs paused for a moment, noticing Hett leaning forward and chuckling for a bit. "Well… thanks? My feelings of general dislike toward you run fairly deep as well."

"You're so sweet," Winter cooed then leaned in so their faces were only a few inches from each other. "But here's the thing, even though I haven't cared for you much… I've never been kissed and… I don't want to die without ever feeling the touch of another on my lips."

"You're jok-"

Biggs only managed to get that much out as Winter's lips crashed against his. For a second his eyes remained wide open and he could hear the sand people shrieking all sorts of noises he couldn't comprehend. Then he felt his face warm and he started leaning into the kiss as well. Which was also the exact time he felt his bonds being cut.

Winter broke the kiss and flattened her face on the side of his, panting deeply. He managed to look down to see a small bone knife in her hands. When did she get that?

"Hett," she whispered in his ear. "Lightsaber. Now."

Biggs didn't wait even half a second. The moment Winter's face cleared his he rushed headlong at the deranged Jedi with Winter charging at him from the other side, her knife leading the way.

Perhaps if things had been allowed to play out from there, they may have succeeded in their attack. Very likely they wouldn't have because Hett was already drawing his lightsaber. The reflexes of a Jedi still remained virtually unmatched after all. But the Force had other plans for A'Sharad Hett that day.

Because Biggs and Winter never even reached him. The moment they put themselves on their feet, the entire camp rocked with an explosion; an explosion that brought with it accompanying blaster fire. In that instant, Biggs, Winter, and Hett all joined together in shock and confusion.

Shock and confusion that flew away the instant they saw the stormtroopers rushing into the village, blasting anything that moved. Over head TIE fighters screamed and dropped charges. Bigg's scarcely could take in the idea that he'd ever actually welcome an Imperial Raid.

"What have you done!?" Hett turned on them. "You've led the Empire here!"

"What? No! That's-" Biggs said but the deranged Jedi was already coming at him.

Winter lashed out at once, her hands moving almost lightning fast as she slashed at the Jedi's chest. Hett, while still in mid-swing at Biggs, could do little to fend off her attack save for jutting out his elbow. The blow was successfully deflected but Winter's momentum kept her, and the blade going forward and upward.

Hett jerked back and howled in pain as the blade slashed upside his face, splitting his head coverings. Biggs, in the meantime, had used the distractions to dodge out of the way and grip Hett's wrists. Blaster fire erupted all around them and as the head coverings fell away from Hett's face, Biggs managed to wrest the lightsaber from his grasp.

"Darklighter come on!" Winter said.

The stormtroopers were advancing, getting closer to their position. As deadly as the sand people were, Biggs had no desire to trade one captor for another. He made to run but Hett tackled him, pounding on him, trying to strangle him; his face now fully revealed, scarred and worn with age.

In an act of desperation, Biggs fumbled with the lightsaber, all the while Hett shrieked at him with a scream more inhuman and animalistic than anything that might have come out of the mouths of the sand people he claimed to be a part of. Winter charged at him but he flattened a hand out and sent her flying backward. Biggs scrambled to get away but Hett smashed a fist against his head gripped his throat with his bare hands.

Biggs could have screamed to see the man's eyes a sudden shade of yellow… almost not human anymore. He felt his neck popping around the man's fingers and he strained to get any oxygen past them. His thumb finally found the activator switch on the lightsaber and he mashed it down, at this point not caring which way the blade shot out of.

The green laser fired straight up, severing Hett's hand from his arm. The mad Jedi reeled back howling and clutching the stump where his hand had been. Desperate fingers suddenly gripped Biggs from behind and he whirled back but froze when he saw it was Winter.

"We have to go while the Empire is focused on the sand people!" she said. "They're stealing gaffi sticks and Bantha's but two humans will stand out."

Biggs nodded and pulled himself to his feet. Together the pair broke out into a sprint and Biggs paused just long enough to see Hett screaming out to his people for help, but them ignoring him altogether. A deep foreboding formed in the center of his stomach and he found himself wondering if it wouldn't have been better if he'd plunged the lightsaber through the man's heart.

* * *

He hated this assignment. He hated everything about it. He'd come to the conclusion well before now. He came to that conclusion from pretty much the first time he'd spoken to that uppity princess. And it all went downhill from there. At every step of the way she fought him, caused them to get into more trouble and further from actually getting her home and getting her paid.

Those were essentially his first thoughts as he woke up, feeling the already blazing Tatooine suns on him. He had no idea how long he'd been out or more importantly, why he'd gone to sleep in the first place. All he knew was it was now mid morning and he was sprawled on the sand, exposed to any one that might want to do him in. Like the sniper.

The _Sniper_!

He rolled over and surveyed his surroundings. A ridge of rocks lined the canyon in front of him, he wasn't exposed to sniper bolts. At least that was good news. Now he just had to figure out what in space was going on.

A sharp desert wind hit him as he turned around and laid his eyes on the adobe hut. Instantly his memory shot back to his last conscious thoughts. That crazy princess had led them there! Then he'd just… zeroed out. The wind gusted past him again and he had to blink away bits of sand as he looked at the hut and watched someone immerge.

In spite of breathing causing him to inhale bits of sand, he almost gasped when through irritated eyes he watched a Jedi exit the hovel. It had been a long time since he'd seen a Jedi but he recognized one when he saw one. Brown outer robe, hearty leather boots, sand colored robes.

Instantly he fumbled for his blaster but realized it wasn't strapped to his belt as he had to remove it to climb up the secret tunnel. He blinked away more sand and only then did he recognize the 'jedi'.

"What the hell are you dressed like that for?" he said.

"It seemed appropriate," Leia said and he narrowed his eyes at her. She then sighed and shook her head. "It was in a chest in this hovel. I decided that I preferred this to walking across the desert in nothing but a torn black body suit or battered stormtrooper armor."

"You just happened to find Jedi Robes in a chest in an abandoned hut in the middle of the desert…"

"I believe they were intended for me, or at least someone close to my size," Leia said. "It would appear that the original owner of this hut had some forethought."

"Original owner… what are you babbling about?"

Leia hesitated for a moment, her eyes even went to his blaster lying in the sand. But in the end she just shrugged. "Let us be open with each other yes? I will tell you everything about this hut and its previous occupier if you just level with me and tell me who the hell you actually are."

"You know who I am. I'm a clone."

"Yes you're a clone, but you're not just any clone. At first I wondered if you were Captain Rex as his whereabouts during the end of the Clone Wars was unknown. But the more I've known you, the more I doubt you were ever part of the clone army."

"Fine," he said. "It seems you've already put a lot of it together. I'm Fett, Boba Fett."

"The bounty hunter."

"Correct."

"My father hired one of the most notorious bounty hunters in the galaxy to rescue me."

"Your father may be a fool to think he could fight the Empire, but he isn't an idiot, he knew I was your best chance and he was more than willing to shell out the creds to bust you from the Empire. Now tell me who this hut belongs to."

"When we get off this planet my father will have much to explain to me. You have caused a great deal of trouble and pain to the Alliance."

"And now the Alliance is paying me to save its ass," Fett said. "Now who lived here?"

"Obi-wan Kenobi," she said. "Or at least it did."

_Kenobi_! Fett's mind jumped in surprise but he kept his face as passive as he possibly could. This was definitely a moment that he wished he could have his face covered as it usually was. Just so he didn't have disguise his facial expressions. Particularly because of what thoughts the idea of meeting Kenobi created in his brain.

Mace Windu may have been his father's killer, but Kenobi certainly played a role. If that Jedi hadn't meddled and chased them out of Kamino, they never would have been in a place where his father would have faced Windu.

In short… Fett had a sore place in his heart for Kenobi and now he was standing where the old Jedi had lived… which meant he'd survived the Purge. At least for a time. Assuming the princess hadn't gone officially bonkers.

"What makes you think that this belonged to Kenobi?" Fett said. "Could just be some random desert hovel."

In response, Leia cleared one side of her robes away and revealed a lightsaber dangling from her belt. Fett narrowed his eyes, not believing it for a second. As if to drive home her point, Leia drew the weapon and ignited the blue blade. Fett's eyes trailed toward the blaster again but by the time he looked back she'd deactivated it.

"Okay… so this home belonged to a Jedi," Fett said. "And you got yourself some souvenirs. Still doesn't change anything. We still need to get off this rock and I still want to know what the hell happened last night."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Leia said. "And right now I don't have time to convince you of the things I've seen and heard. Come on, into the hut, Kenobi kept some armor that may fit you."

Fett could only watch as Leia made her way into the hut and surveyed it before motioning for him to follow her. He shook his head, picked up this blaster and went after her. Something was very different about her now and he couldn't place it.

Once inside the hut he took a cursory look around to find it dusty but fairly well preserved. He would have expected an abandoned shack to have been gutted by scavengers and the elements but apart from Leia's footprints it didn't look like anyone had entered this place in years.

"There was a battle here," Fett said as he ran his finger along a lightsaber scorch on the wall. "Kenobi against some attacker? No body, so we can assume he survived at least long enough to leave the building."

"The armor is over here," Leia motioned to another room.

Fett nodded but his eyes kept darting about as he picked apart the dwelling for any clues as to what exactly had transpired. Once in the adjoining room he assessed the armor Leia had discovered. Mostly it was Jedi Issue armor that saw use in the Clone Wars. It wasn't much, such armor was designed to be sparse and only cover the most vital of areas as to allow maximum mobility for Jedi acrobatics. But among that there was also a helmet, one of ubese design by the looks of it.

All in all he would have preferred his own get up, or even the stormtrooper armor, but this was going to have to do. After a few minutes he managed to find the pieces of armor he wished to use, as well as finding a pair of boots that most certainly had belonged to Kenobi, Fett immerged to find Leia fiddling with an old comlink.

"Careful with that," Fett said. "That's a Hush 98 by the looks of it. It should be in a museum."

"Like everything else in this place," Leia said. "I've cleared dust out of its circuits and its powercell seems to be working, it just needs to self-charge. Hopefully when it's up and running we can make contact with someone."

"You know a lot of rebels on this dustball girl?" Fett said.

"No but surely there's someone nearby that will be sympathetic to two people lost in the desert, a moisture farmer perhaps."

"If you say so," Fett said then looked around. "You better pray you're right, you may have found us clothes but we still need water if we're going to survive out here."

"One thing at a time," Leia said as she fiddled with the comlink.

"I'm going to go scout about," Fett said. "See if I can't find a trace of our sniper last… what's this?"

"What are you talking-" Leia started but was interrupted by the comlink suddenly sparking to life with static and a voice.

"_Hello? Hello is anyone out there?"_ a male voice said.

Fett gestured for Leia to give him the device but she just turned her back to him and answered.

"Hello?" Leia said. "Can you hear me?"

"_Yes… thank heavens! We need help_!"

"Okay, slow down, who is this?"

"_My name is Biggs Darklighter, we're on the run from the sand people and we're stranded_."

Fett walked up next to Leia. "Who's _we_?"

Instead of getting an answer there was a rustling on the other end and both could overhear some hushed arguing then nothing. For a second Fett wondered if they lost the signal but the transmission light indicated the comlink was still active.

"_Hello_," a female voice came. "_This is Winter, my companion is overstating our need. Might I ask who we're talking to_?"

"Winter!" Leia said. "Winter it's me! It's Leia!"

"_Leia!"_

_ "Princess Leia_?" Biggs could be heard repeating.

"Winter where are you?" Leia said.

"We're… in the middle of the desert! Can't say where… the what? The Jundland Wastes. We were captured by sand people looking for you but have escaped. We managed to get to what's left of our speeder and recover some of our gear but we're being chased by sand people. Where are you?"

"Some hut near some canyons," Leia said. "If I can find a map or something maybe I can find you."

"_A hut! You mean Ben Kenobi's hut_?" Biggs could be heard saying.

"Leia, we're not far from you! Just a few kilometers southwest! We'll come to you!"

"_No we'll come to you_!" Leia said.

"Negative we-" Winter started but the roar of the sand people could be heard on the comlink and suddenly the signal scrambled.

Leia tried in vain to reestablish it but to no avail. When it became obvious that it wouldn't work she looked to Fett and then rushed out of the hut. He followed her shaking his head. So the Alliance's contacts had somehow bungled their way into the desert. Fantastic.

"We need to help them," Leia said. "If we run we can-"

Again she was interrupted. By a girlish scream not far off. Fett drew his blaster but Leia held an expression of shock and surprise. She held her hand up as the canyon below them echoed with the sound of metal crashing, sand people screaming and terrified beeps and boops.

"Artoo and Threepio!" Leia said and made to run toward the sound but then froze.

"What's going on?" Fett said.

Leia made to go the opposite direction then back toward the sound of the ruckus. Her brows furrowed and she bit her bottom lip while her fingers threaded together nervously.

"Tell me what's happening!" Fett said.

"I have to make a choice!" Leia said.

"What?"

"The fate of the Alliance or the fate of the Jedi," she muttered.

* * *

"Well, there are two banthas down there, but I don't see…" Luke said to C3P0. "… Wait a second. They're sand people alright I can see one of them now."

Almost as if waiting for Luke to finish his sentence, a tusken raider rose up from the rocks, blurring itself directly in front of the macrobinocular view. By the time Luke could look up at it, Threepio had fallen off the ridge giving out a girlish scream and the tusken raider howled in rage.

Luke did his best to avoid getting his head bashed open but it was no use. The last thing he remembered was seeing the tusken brandishing it's gaffi and going in for another strike. From there… things got murky.

He remembered hearing a lot of grunts and groans, he had the distinct impression of being carried then thrown onto the rocky ground and more grunting. Desperately he tried to rouse himself, tried to regain his faculties but his vision was clouded with pain and dizziness. Off… somewhere else he heard the sound of small items being tossed around and dropped to the rock.

Slowly he opened his eyes, straining against the pain to see the sand people arguing over the stuff he kept in his speeder. He tried to piece together a plan, an idea of what to do but his head still swam.

Then one of the sand people noticed him and started approaching with its gaffi in hand. Luke struggled to get away but his limbs protested every movement. Rough hands found his hair and he managed to get his eyes open long enough to see a bone dagger coming out. Thoughts of his Uncle and the horrible things they'd said to each other flooded his brain as he realized he was about to die.

But death never came.

Not for Luke anyway.

A blaster shot rang out and the fingers gripping his hair slacken as the tuske raider that assaulted him fell away with a hole in its head. The other tuskens roared but met a similar fate. One Luke didn't see die as it ran past him but he heard a snap/hiss and then a death howl from the tusken.

Again Luke tried to move, and this time had slightly better success but his head still felt like it was stuffed with cobwebs and he still had to blink from the pain every time he opened his eyes. He heard a feminine voice talking to Artoo, assuring him everything would be alright.

Then he felt soft hands touch his brow and the pain subsided a bit. Enough for him to look up at his savior. Had he not already been fairly incoherent he might have tried to think of something smart or brave to say. As it was, he could only stare up at the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

"Rest easy friend," she said. "You've had a busy day."

Luke sat up. "Who… who are you?"

"The name is Mara Jade, these your droids?"

* * *

A/N: Special thanks to everyone that has been reading and reviewing this thing. I love all comments and am so glad to hear people liking my little AU. Buckle up guys and girls, things only get crazier from here!


	5. Leia's Choice

**Chapter 5**

**Leia's Choice**

"I can't tell you how glad I am to that you came!" Luke said as he sat up. "I thought I was dead for sure."

"Well lucky for you I was here," Mara Jade said. "I don't know much about these sand people but they looked like they were about to spill your brains all over the rocks."

"They might have," Luke said as he turned his eyes onto the bodies. Part of him recoiled at the sight of the dead sand people, but this woman had saved him so he wasn't going to dwell on the violent method she used to do it.

"So what are you doing so far out here that little old me had to save you?" Mara said with a disarming smile.

"This little droid," Luke nodded at Artoo, who still cowered under a small rocky alcove. "I think he's searching for his former master, but I've never seen such devotion in a droid before. He claims to be the property of an Obi-wan Kenobi."

"Obi-wan Kenobi?" Mara said with a touch of shock in her voice.

"I thought he might mean old Ben Kenobi, a legend in these parts."

"That's... That's really interesting," Mara said. "How long have you had these droids?"

"About a day," Luke shrugged. "We bought them off some Jawas. The little one here started acting weird right away. He played a recording of some princess and then tricked me into removing his restraining bolt. Not my smartest move I guess."

"Probably not," Mara said as her hand trailed down to her belt, near her blaster.

"I'm sorry," Luke said, finally remembering the manners Aunt Beru drilled into him. "I haven't introduced myself. I'm Luke Skywalker."

"Skywalker?" Mara's eyes widened again and hr hand left her belt to comb through her hair. "Famous last name."

"It is?" Luke raised a brow. "I always figured it was fairly common."

"The only Skywalker I ever heard of was Anakin Skywalker."

"Well, wait a minute" Luke said, scratching the back of his head. "That was my father's name, but he wasn't famous. My uncle always told me he was a navigator on a spice freighter."

"A spice freighter?" Mara said, almost laughing. "Anakin Skywalker was a Jedi Knight that fought in the Clone Wars!"

"The Clone Wars?" Luke said. "We can't be talking about the same guy."

"I'll admit I have a hard time imagining it," Jade gave him a once over.

Around this time Luke decided to look at her, really look at her. The green eyes and red hair were certainly fetching and they're what had held his attention during their conversation but now he noticed the desert gear, the customized blaster, and the sniper rifle strapped to her back. This was a woman ready for action. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if telling his life story was the best idea. But he quickly countered that bad logic with the fact that she saved his life only moments before.

"All I know about my father is that he died around the end of the Clone Wars in a shuttle accident, I've never even heard of an Anakin Skywalker that was a Jedi General."

"He was a cunning warrior by all accounts," Mara said. "And one of the best star pilots in the galaxy."

"I'm not too shabby behind the controls of a ship myself," Luke said.

"Well that settles it," Mara said with a wink. "You must be the unknown offspring of a Jedi!"

"I was serious," Luke said. "I mean… nevermind."

"You really think that you could actually be _that_ Anakin Skywalker's son?" Jade said.

"I don't know…" Luke shook his head. "I always believed what my Uncle told me but out of the blue you tell that someone with the exact same name existed and… maybe…"

"Well, General Skywalker did die at the end of the Clone Wars," Mara said.

"Do you know how?"

"No," Mara said. "Though I've visited the Jedi Temple and taken the Imperial Tour there, they say that Skywalker died along with the rest of the Jedi when they rose up against the Senate to seize control the Old Republic. Back in the dark times before the Empire."

"Before the Empire?" Luke muttered, again that doubt about his rescuer resurfaced but his mind had latched onto the idea of his father being a Jedi Knight. "You don't sound certain about that? You think he may have died another way?"

"Well it's just a story I've heard," Mara said. "I've heard tale that Skywalker remained loyal to the Emperor and that, and this is the interesting part, he was killed by one of the Jedi. Obi-wan Kenobi."

"Obi-wan Kenobi?" Luke said.

"Yes, some say he betrayed and murdered Anakin Skywalker."

"But I thought… I thought the Jedi were the good guys."

"Well I'm not surprised, this is the ass end of space, you guys probably think that the Rebellion is-"

A rock fell nearby, causing the canyon walls to echo with the clacking of stone on stone. Mara had her hand on her blaster and she looked around. Luke fumbled around for something that he might fight with but the sand people had destroyed his rifle.

"I think we better get going," Mara said. "I'm good in a fight but I don't want to take on a whole swarm of those sand people."

"Okay," Luke said then looked to Artoo. "Get in the speeder and get it primed to leave, we have to get Threepio."

"Hurry," Mara said. "I feel like we're being watched."

"Watched?" Luke said. "More sand peop-"

A bolt of blaster fire shot down from the rocks above and cut him off, its report echoed on the canyon walls. Both Mara and Luke dove behind the speeder as another shot rang out. The pair sat like that for a second, practically on top of one another before Mara slipped her own blaster from her holster and handed it to Luke. After giving him a nod she pulled the rifle off of her back.

"Please tell me you know how to shoot!"

"Who's shooting at us!?" Luke said.

"Hell if I know!" Mara said as she began disassembling parts of it. "Just lay down some suppressing fire for a second! I'm not going to have time to aim with this thing like this, I need to compact it."

Luke nodded and took a breath. Another shot whizzed past their heads and he spun around and pumped out several blasts in the direction of the blaster fire. Blaster bolts lit up the rock walls, leaving smoking holes but Luke didn't wait to see if he'd made any of his shots, instead he ducked back down, just in time to miss getting hit by returned fire. This time from another blaster altogether.

"Great," he said. "Now they're two of them. Are you almost done?"

"Got it!" Mara said as she removed the stock of the blaster rifle then whirled around and opened fire in a rapid barrage. Luke did so as well, this time managing to get a look at one of their attackers; someone in a helmet and armor. Definitely not sand people.

A shot nearly hit Mara and she ducked down, Luke followed suit but not before firing off one more shot. They looked to each other, both breathing heavily from the pressure and the heat. Mara made to go for another round but multiple shots rained from above. Each time one of them started poking their heads or hands over the shots would come again.

Luke glanced over at Mara who was counting for some reason, then she nodded to herself and rolled over and fired blindly. Her shot apparently had some effect because the blaster fire coming at them stopped. Luke knelt up and aimed his blaster the direction the shots had been coming from.

"I didn't hit him," Mara said then fired at some rocks, Luke saw him a second later too, the helmeted guy was just ducking behind a rock, waiting for another opening to strike. Instantly Luke opened fire too, both he and Mara now pinning down at least one of their attackers.

Then something happened. Luke… felt something. A strange… tingling in the back of his neck. He couldn't say he'd never felt it before, but never this strong. It felt familiar like he was meeting a long lost friend or relative. Even though he kept firing his eyes trailed away to a nearby outcropping of rocks above them. The more he looked the more the idea formed in his mind that there was something… someone looking at him from there.

He was about to turn his attention back to their first target but he caught a ghost of movement in the corner of his eye, right where he had been looking. He saw a blaster rifle being aimed at Mara. Without thinking he whirled about and fired at the outcropping. He heard a shout and the blaster rifle that had been targeting his ally flew from the would-be attacker's hands.

For a moment he paused as he saw the assassin. Brown cloak, with a hood covering the face, sandy colored inner robes. The attacker scrambled to recover his weapon but Luke knew he couldn't let up. He pumped another shot right at him, knowing that this time he would down the target.

Then, almost too fast for him to realize what happened, there was a flash of light and the attacker drew a laser sword. The next instant Luke could only blink as the blaster bolt he intended for his target ricocheted back at him.

He didn't have time to dodge, he didn't have time to duck, he didn't even have time to cry out. The blaster bolt caught him square in the shoulder and sent him sprawling on his back. Mara didn't even spare him a glance. Instead she locked her eyes on the cloaked figure that had struck him down.

In the next instant a crimson lightsaber of her own erupted from Mara's hands and she began knocking the blaster fire back at their attackers. Luke, in spite of the pain, crawled over to the edge of the speeder and dragged himself in. R2 wailed in terror from his spot in the back seat as Luke rolled into the driver's position.

Blaster bolts came close to hitting him as he activated the speeder but Mara batted them away and dove into the speeder. Luke managed one last look back at the cloaked figure before he gunned the engine and the pair zipped out of the canyon and out of harm's way.

* * *

"Dammit!" Fett said the instant the speeder shot out of the canyon.

He had tried shooting out the engines from the moment the boy lurched into the damn thing but the karking assassin was better trained than he could possibly have guessed. The Empire had put the highest priority on catching the Princess it seemed. Just his luck, he put himself on the wrong side this time.

Off to the side he heard Leia deactivate the lightsaber and he pulled himself up and walked over to her. He still couldn't believe that she had managed to deflect that blaster shot, especially considering that the kid hadn't been a half bad shot. And this was what bothered him, the jedi robes, the damn lightsaber, all the talk about Obi-wan Kenobi. This wasn't good.

"Alright Princess," he said. "You're going to tell me right now how the hell you blocked that shot, what happened last night at Kenobi's hut and what the hell you did that has the Empire sending a lightsaber trained assassin after you."

"Come on," Leia didn't even bother looking at him as she started making her way down to the canyon floor. "We need to see if there's anything down there we can use to figure out who they were and how to follow them."

"Did you hear me?"

"Of course I did," Leia said. "But I don't see any reason to engage you in that conversation. Not when they got away along with the Astromech droid. It has what I'm after."

"And what is that?"

"Stolen imperial data," she glanced back. "And just to clear things up, I blocked that shot by pure luck, nothing else."

With that the princess put her back to him and inched her way down the canyon until she was standing on the floor below. Fett could do nothing more at this point but grind his teeth follow after her and remind himself how much he was getting paid to do this.

"There are dead sand people all around here," Fett said. "Might be able to find some banthas neaby."

Leia nodded but didn't say anything as at that very moment a new voice joined theirs in the canyon. Fett drew his blaster as soon as he heard it but Leia planted a hand on his weapon and pushed it down.

"H…hello? Is anyone there? Help! I fallen and am damaged! Someone please help me!"

"It's a protocol droid," Leia said then went after the voice.

It didn't take them long to find the golden droid, lying in a heap on the rocky canyon floor. His arm rested only a couple of feet away and he had a large dent in his head but otherwise he didn't look too beat up.

"Threepio," Leia crouched down and helped the droid sit up.

"Oh gracious me! Princess Leia! Whatever are you doing in this dreadful place?"

"It's a long story," she said. "Can you stand?"

"I… I don't know. I took a tumble when Master Luke was attacked by the sand people. Oh no! Master Luke where is he?"

"Who's Master Luke?"

"If I may say Mistress Leia it to is a very long story, but suffice it to say that Master Luke became our new owner after we left your service. We came out here looking for Artoo. Oh no! Artoo! Where's Artoo?"

The droid swiveled his head back and forth trying to find his counterpart and Leia glanced at Fett. Luke was most likely the boy they'd seen but that didn't explain the one they were really interested in.

"Artoo is safe… for now," Leia said. "Threepio I need you to tell me everything you can about this Luke and specifically the red headed companion he had with him."

"Red headed… I'm sorry Mistress but I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Master Luke and I came out here alone. We were searching for Artoo he kept going on about someone named Obi-wan Kenobi and some mission."

Leia shook her head, she knew that tasking R2 with such an important mission was the right call, she just wished things had turned out better. She looked down the canyon, the way that the assassin and this 'Luke' had gone and her stomach only sank more. They got away with R2, and by the looks of it, an innocent had been caught in the crossfire. It seemed that everything about her mission was doomed. From the Death Star plans to the missing Jedi Master.

It was then that her comlink crackled to life, drawing her from her ruminations. She glanced up to Fett then lifted the device up, letting it activate so they could get a clearer transmission.

"Mistress Leia," Winter's voice came. "Are you there?"

"I'm here Winter," Leia said. "Are you alright?"

"We escaped the Sand People… but Biggs is hurt. We're heading for a hut that we spotted before we were captured."

"I… I'll meet you there," Leia said.

"You know it?"

"I was just there," Leia said. "There's much to discuss."

Leia stood and brushed herself off. She took a deep breath as she tried to decide what course of action to take next. There was no way to catch the assassin now, not on foot anyway. Her eyes fell to the bounty hunter. He stood holding Threepio's arm, almost like a club, his face unreadable behind his new helmet. There was no hope of catching the assassin, not on foot anyway, but maybe they could track her down before she got off planet.

"Give me his arm," Leia said. "I'm going to meet them up at Kenobi's hut, you look around, see if you can't find some way to track down that assassin."

"I don't take orders from you," Fett said.

"But you do from my father's money," Leia said. "And I can promise you more of it if you do as I say."

He just stood still for a moment before finally shrugging and turning his head to survey the canyon. "If it will get you closer to actually wanting to get off this rock… fine. But don't think you can sneak away from me Princess. I've tracked a lot sneakier prey than you."

"You won't have to," Leia said. "Like it or not. I made my choice when we came after Artoo and Threepio. I fear it was the wrong one, and as part of the consequence I'm stuck with you."

"Feeling's mutual."

* * *

"I wonder if that hut has air conditioning?" Bigg's muttered as he limped along.

"I'd be more hopeful if I thought it had a med kit," Winter said, grunting just a tiny bit as he leaned on her shoulder.

"You say that now," Biggs managed a smile. "But you've only barely experienced Tatooine afternoons. Air conditioning is practically a gift from above."

"Fine, we'll hope it's both well cooled and has a medkit," Winter said, her eyes trailed to the wound in his shoulder. One of the sand people had managed to score a hit with one of their projectile weapons. At least she wouldn't have to treat him for blaster burns, but if he continued to bleed things would get very bad.

"Looks like… that crazy jedi was right about one thing," Biggs said as they neared the hut. "The sand people won't come near this place."

"We'll have to thank the Force that small blessing at least," Winter said, casting her eyes about, still not quite willing to believe that the sand people simply abandoned their chase. They no doubt were after them for vengeance for bringing the Empire down on them. Superstitions only went so far.

A desert wind kicked up as they approached the hut and Winter took a deep breath through her nose, preparing herself for whatever she might find inside. She knew that Princess Leia had been here previously, assuming they were talking about the same abandoned hut in the middle of a desert planet. Still she wasn't sure what she expected to find, but after the days events, she wasn't prepared to let her guard down for anything.

An empty, dust covered dwelling met her and Biggs. A place that showed no sign of entry save for a flurry of footprints that had been made just recently. Winter guessed by their size that they belonged to the Princess. Quickly, she spotted a nearby seat and guided Biggs over to it.

"Sorry," she said as she sat him down. "Looks like this place is air conditioned free."

"Okay," Biggs nodded. "That's the last straw, just let me die."

Winter narrowed her eyes at him and he blinked at her as if confused as to how he drew her ire.

"When you're more cognizant we're going to have a discussion on appropriate use of humor," she finally said and began tearing off a piece of her sleeve and held it against the wound. Taking Biggs' hand she pressed it against his shoulder then stood up.

"I'm going to look around and see if there aren't any supplies we might use here to help remove the slug," she said. "You sit and try not to think of cheesy one liners or inappropriate jokes."

"I'll do my best," Biggs grunted, "But no promises."

Winter shook her head then set herself onto the task at hand. She first found a large chest that looked like it had been recently opened but try as she might she couldn't get it to budge. Noticing an encryption circuit she almost started slicing it but decided that she didn't have the time nor was someone likely to hide a medkit in a locked chest.

Her continued to forage through the rooms. Quickly finding the main vaporator unit, which despite being covered in dust and deactivated for who knew how long, seemed like it was serviceable. She blew the dust off and activated it, cringing slightly as it groaned to life but then began to hum, albeit far from rhythmically. If they could actually catch some luck they could get some water to clean the wound with.

She made to look for the fresher when she heard Biggs gasp out loud. Fearing something had happened to his injury she rushed back to the main room, immediately seeing what had caused his outburst. Far from his wound, he gasped at the sight of a Jedi Knight standing in the doorway. Surely, just like she, he'd seen old holo's of them and there was no mistaking the brown cloaks and sandy robes. Was this who'd they'd been looking for? With the sunlight shining directly behind the figure, Winter couldn't make out a face.

"General Kenobi?"

"Winter it's me," Leia's familiar voice came as she entered into the room fully.

"Your Highness!" Winter launched forward and embraced her best friend in a fierce hug. Just as quickly though, she pulled away and gave her a once over. "Why in space are you dressed like that?"

"It's a long story," Leia said then looked past Winter to Biggs. "How is your partner?"

"Better now that I see you your Highness," Biggs managed but the paleness in his face and the way he winced with each word spoke otherwise.

"Hello!" a synthetic voice came from the doorway and Winter glanced over Leia's shoulder to see C3P0, carrying his own arm. "Lady Winter how very good it is to see you here!"

"You still have your droids?" Winter said.

"Artoo's been taken," Leia said in an almost defeated tone. "And with him possibly the hope of the Galaxy."

"I say, this is a dreary place," C3P0 said then his photo receptors turned on Biggs. "Oh goodness heavens, are you alright?"

"I've been looking for a medkit," Winter said. "Or something that can be used to help him. There's a locked chest that I can't get into but…"

"I don't recall seeing a medkit in it when I opened it," Leia said. "But I'll have another look."

"You can open it?" Biggs said.

"Long story."

"Why do I get the feeling we're going to be getting that answer a lot?" Winter said as Leia moved to the chest and began working with the security system. Sure as she said, the chest popped right open and the Princess proceeded to dig through it.

"I think I've got the vaporator running," Winter said as she moved over to Biggs to examine his wound again. "We should at least have water to…"

"There's no kit," Leia interrupted, "But there are some bacta patches, they look unused."

"Why would the owner of that chest have put a few spare bacta pouches in there?" Winter said.

"This chest once belonged to Obi-wan Kenobi," Leia said. "In spite of his disappearance he seemed to have remarkable foresight."

"Obi-wan Kenobi?" Threepio said. "Then Artoo was telling the truth? I'm so confused."

"Me too… Disappearance?" Biggs said. "This was actually Kenobi's hut? I don't care if I die while you tell this long story, I have to hear it."

"You're not going to die," Winter said. "but she can tell her tale while we work on you."

And so the Princess recounted to them the story of her escape, of smuggling herself with the stormtroopers and how she and the bounty hunter eluded capture a second time. She told of the assassin that stalked them and how they stumbled onto the hovel in the middle of the night.

Winter wasn't able to ponder too much on the evasive way Leia spoke once got to the part of the hovel. She was focusing on drawing the slug out with the knife she'd picked off the tusken raider guard back when they were prisoners. But there was definitely something she wasn't telling them.

She made a mental note to speak to the Princess about it later when it was just the two of them. In the mean time she needed to clean Biggs wound. She kept periodically glancing at him to make sure he was okay and had to admit she was impressed by his overall composure. She'd just extracted a piece of metal out of his shoulder with a sharpened piece of bone and he'd barely made a noise. Provided he lived through the experience she'd make sure to never let him know.

Leia finished by telling them about confronting Boba Fett about his identity and by then Winter had found another dilemma. The wound was clean and ready for the bacta patches, but bleeding as it was, the bacta would likely only put a stop to the bleeding and provide little healing beyond that.

"We're going to need to build a fire," Biggs said, guessing the problem. "Find some metal so we can cauterize the wound."

Winter nodded grimly but then Leia touched her shoulder to stop her from leaving Biggs side.

"I… I think I can help with that… if it is necessary," she said then pulled back her robe to reveal a lightsaber.

"Is that a…"

"You have steady hands," Leia put the laser sword in Winter's fingers. "If he's ready then get it over with."

For a moment, Winter wasn't ever sure she recognized her lifelong friend. Not only dressed as a Jedi but carrying their weapon? She glanced at the lightsaber and shook her head. Even before the fall of the Jedi they were worth a fortune in the black market, she couldn't even guess its worth now. And here she held one in her hand ready to try and cauterize a wound rather than cut the shoulder off of her friend.

Her eyes shot to Biggs. Associate. Not to cut the shoulder off an associate.

Leia washed off a broken chair leg then ordered Biggs to bite down on it and Winter forced herself to end her contemplation and focus on the task. The blue beam lit up and she took a step back so as to find the right angle. To his credit, Biggs handled it as best he could but even he couldn't stifle a cry of pain as a laser hot enough to cut through virtually anything seared his flesh back together.

The moment the deed was done, Winter deactivated the blade dabbed water on the wound then gently placed the bacta patch over it. Just one would do for now. They could save the others for later. Biggs huffed and puffed at the pain but Winter could actually sigh with some relief. He would survive.

"Do you think the water is clean enough for him to drink?" Leia said.

"It… vap…" Biggs had his eyes locked across the room where the vaporator was located. "…one of the b… best designs… it should be safe."

"Let's get him something to drink then he can rest while we plan our next move," Leia moved over the vaporator, leaving Winter alone with him. She didn't realize until after the princess had returned that Biggs had taken her hand and held it firmly. Knowing he needed support she didn't immediately let go but was relieved when he released the hand hold to grasp the small basin of water the princess gave him.

While Biggs recovered, Winter sat across the room with her friend and told her all about what had transpired with Biggs and herself. None of it seemed to phase the princess except for the part about the crazed Jedi leading the sand people but she was grateful for their escape.

Then came the part hardest to hear. Leia told her about the stolen plans hidden in R2 and how they were now in the hands of a farmhand and an Imperial assassin who had gotten away on a speeder, leaving little chance that they would catch them. After taking a breath, Leia decided to lay on another bombshell.

"We have to be prepared for the eventuality that the Death Star plans will fall back into the hands of the Empire," she said. "And because of that we need to work on finding Obi-wan Kenobi. He's alive somewhere in the galaxy… and his help might be the only thing that saves us at this point."

Winter had to shake her head. "Your highness…. Leia, how can you be sure he's alive? Have you seen this place? Yes it's remarkable that we found it and that there are enough salvageable things to serve us, but it's been abandoned about as long as we've been alive. Wouldn't it be best to try and contact the fleet and come up with a new plan to sabotage that battle station?"

"Kenobi's alive," Leia said. "I… I have it on very good authority that he's… that he's not dead at least. He's our last hope."

"I know a Jedi is a powerful warrior," Winter said. "But is he really going to make that much of a difference against the Empire."

"As much as I don't like Jedi…" a shadowy voice came from the doorway. Winter looked to see an armored helmeted man standing there. She went for her blaster but Leia stopped her and motioned for the man to enter. "… and as much as I don't like Kenobi, your Princess is right, that Jedi was one of the chief generals of the clone wars. If anyone can make your little fleet respectable it's him."

"You must be the bounty hunter Prince Organa hired," Winter said. "You were supposed to contact us when you got her Highness planetside."

"Got wrapped up in other things," he replied as he surveyed the room then looked to the princess. "Found the banthas. They're not fast but they'll get us out of the desert quicker than we will on foot. Especially if we have dead weight like him."

The bounty hunter nodded at Biggs and Winter felt her lips bend into a frown. If he had done what he was told there was a fair chance this all could have been avoided. The Princess would be safe and Biggs wouldn't have been shot. Far from the first time since she learned the news she questioned the Prince of Alderaan's judgment. But as always, duty required she put her feelings to one side.

"So we have transportation," Winter said. "What do we do about finding your missing Jedi?"

"Found this outside," Fett held up a piece of metal. "Think it might be a clue as to what happened to Kenobi."

"A piece of scrap?" Leia said.

"A piece of scrap with lightsaber cuts on it," Fett said. "Looks like it came from a droid."

"A droid?" C3P0, who had been mercifully silent, piped up. "Oh my…"

"Obi-wan was att…" Leia started but trailed off and gave a small cough. "Go on bounty hunter, what can you tell us about it?"

"This is a phrikit-tyderuim weave if my eyes don't deceive me… something like this could stop a lightsaber."

"Yet there's a piece of it lying on the ground," Leia tapped some scorching on the metal. "It's clearly been cut by a laser sword."

"Almost no metal is entirely lightsaber proof, with a strong enough cut, Kenobi could have cleaved some off."

Winter watched as Leia sighed and examined the scrap piece. "I have reason to believe Kenobi was abducted by a droid. This might actually be a vital clue."

"There's some writing on the underside," Fett flipped it over. "Never seen the like of it though."

"Writing?" C3P0 actually stood now. "Oh, might I have a look? After all I am fluent in over six million forms of communication!"

Leia handed the piece over to the droid, who held it with his one arm and examined it. For once, Leia wished she could see what was going on behind those photoreceptors but protocol droids were designed to look passive.

"Well I say, this is very interesting," Threepio said. "Very interesting indeed."

"What?" Winter said.

"Well you see... the actual message is in early basic but the characters, as you can see, are not in aurebesh. They in fact, appear to be ancient sith."

"Sith?" Fett said. "It was written in Sith?"

"It would appear to be," C3P0 said. "If you take a look at the fine curvature of the-"

"Threepio," Leia shook her head. "We'll take your word for it. Just tell us what it says."

"Oh… oh yes of course, it says: Manufactured by Systech Corporation. If found return to owner."

"Systech?" Winter said. "I've never heard of it."

"Maybe your droid's got a loose wire and it means Czerca?" Fett said.

"I beg your pardon sir but it's my arm that's damaged not my internal processor!" the droid said. "And if my databanks are correct the Systech Corporation was a droid and weapons manufacturing corporation that went out of business some four thousand years ago."

"He does have a loose wire," Fett said. "No way that metal was processed four thousand years ago. The only wear and tear it has is from the last twenty years of lying in the sun and dirt here on Tatooine."

"Threepio," Leia said. "Where was the Systech Corporation located before it closed?"

"Nar Shadda, I believe."

Leia nodded and went to the door, gazing out at the dunes and desert. "Well then we have a lead. We'll need to return that droid part. But first things first, we need to try and catch that assassin. As soon as we can load Biggs up onto a bantha we're going after them."

* * *

A/N: Thanks to everyone that's reading and taking the time to review! I'll try to keep the pace up!


	6. Soft Lies and Hard Truths

Chapter 6

Soft Lies and Hard Truths

Somewhere in the back of his mind, an errant fantasy about bringing a girl to Beggars Canyon had always hung around. He would bring her out on a swoop or a skyhopper and then show her how he could 'thread' the Stone Needle and she would swoon at his piloting skills.

Nowhere in those fantasies did it involve her cleaning and healing a blaster wound in the shoulder. Yet here he was looking up at the beautiful Mara Jade as she put the finishing touches on his shoulder using a dermal regenerator. All the while the rocky outcroppings of Beggars Canyon provided them with shade and protection. If it wasn't for the excruciating blaster wound, this hardly would have been a terrible place to be.

"You're lucky," she said to him, keeping her eyes on the wound. "It just got flesh. If the blast had gone any deeper it might have fused your bones. Nothing in my medkit or the one in your trunk for that, we'd have to take you to a hospital. Now hold still, I have clean some of this blood away."

The thought of his bones having to be cut back into shape and grafted back together brought things even closer to home for Luke than they had been earlier. He shook his head and tried to take a breath. "Uncle Owen is going to kill me."

"I think he'll be happy to have you back alive," Mara said.

"Who were those people?" Luke said. "One of them had a laser sword like you… in fact, why do you have one?"

Mara regarded him for a moment, her emerald green eyes partially hooded by her thick eye lashes and partially shadowed eyelids, as if deep in thought; as though considering her words very carefully. Luke reminded himself that he wanted an answer not just to gaze into her eyes.

"You say you only had those droids for about a day?"

"Yeah," Luke nodded. "We bought them yesterday morning off some jawas,"

Mara looked away from his wound and straight at him. She took a deep breath as if steeling herself. Luke sat up a bit and she looked away, staring out into the canyons, and he looked down to see her hand quivering just a bit.

"Mara, what's wrong?"

"Luke can I trust you?"

"Of course you can trust me."

"No Luke," she turned to him. "I have to know for sure that I can trust you. Think about what you saw back there and then look me in the eyes and tell me that I can trust you."

"I… I saw some people dressed funny attacking us. I saw someone with a lightsaber attack me, and I saw you defending me with a lightsaber. You've saved my life twice today Mara, of course you can trust me!"

"That's good," Mara said. "Because I know that the reputation of my… employer is sometimes called into question and I don't want you judging me for it."

"What do you work for the Hutts or something?"

"Those droids you bought," Mara said. "They were stolen weren't they?"

"I think they might have been…" Luke frowned, trying to figure out what she meant by her employer and her follow up questions. "…There's no way of telling when you're dealing with Jawa's. Wait… you're not from the civil defense force… are you from the Empire?"

"Those droids belonged to an Imperial Senator Princess Leia," Mara said.

"Princess Leia?" Luke said felt his stomach fall. Mara and the Princess worked for the Empire. No, there had to be more to it than that. "I saw a recording of her yesterday! She looked like she was in some sort of trouble!"

"She was Luke," Mara said. "Her ship was transporting crucial information about the Rebellion, she was on her way to deliver it when Rebel terrorists attacked and destroyed her ship."

"Rebel terrorists?" Luke furrowed his brows. "That didn't sound right…"

"It's true," Mara said. "But before her capture by the Rebellion, the Princess managed to smuggle the information into one of the droids, probably your R2 unit there, then sent them to the planet in an escape pod."

"But the Rebellion wouldn't do something like that," Luke said. "Artoo is this true? Were you attacked?"

The droid warbled something quick and almost desperate but Luke couldn't understand, not for the first time he wished they had managed to get C3P0 on board. Luke sighed and looked back to Mara.

"I've always heard that the Rebellion is a group of… Freedom Fighters. Are you sure you got the story right?"

Mara reached over and took Luke's hand. "I know I have my facts right. The Rebellion attacked an Imperial escort ship, murdered everyone aboard except for the Princess. Then when they couldn't find the droids they sent a bounty hunter after them."

"The guy in the helmet?" Luke said. "What about the guy with the lightsaber?"

"Think about it Luke, you were out in the desert looking for Obi-wan Kenobi," Mara said. "A Jedi. That wasn't just someone with a laser sword. That was a Jedi, probably Kenobi himself."

"But why would a Jedi attack us?"

"Jedi were almost all traitors, he was probably trying to recover the droids just like the bounty hunter."

"But Princess Leia was looking for him in her message," Luke glanced at R2. "She said he was her only hope!"

"The Princess might have thought Kenobi remained loyal to the Empire," Mara shrugged. "But remember, he's the Jedi that killed the man that might be your father. Even if he didn't, you've got the blaster burns to prove whose side he's on."

"I don't know Mara," Luke shook his head. "Everything I've ever heard or seen about the Empire is bad. They tax us and impose such hard regulations. And I've heard they do much worse! I've heard about how they oppress whole star systems!"

"Am I oppressing you Luke?" Mara said. "You're a smart guy, so I know you've figured out that I'm with the Empire. Am I hurting you or even threatening you?"

"Mara I…" Luke searched her eyes for anything that would show him the cruelty or evil that he associated with the Empire but saw none of it there. Part of hims said to jump in the speeder and run, the other reminded him how she'd defended him from the moment they met. In the end he gave the only answer he knew for sure."…Mara I can't get involved, we had no idea that the droids were stolen. I'm grateful that you've helped me but I don't know what you expect out of me. I'm just a moisture farmer."

"A moisture farmer that might be the long lost son of one of the greatest Jedi Knights that ever lived," Mara said. "I know you don't trust the Empire and I can understand that, sometimes it can seem a bit harsh, but it's helped me my whole life. And I need your help now. I'll never be able to avoid the rebels and return this stolen property by myself."

"I can't," Luke said. "Look, I can take you as far as Anchorhead. From there you can get a transport back to your Imperial headquarters or wherever you're going."

"You must do what you think is right of course," Mara said.

* * *

"Okay," Biggs said, his usual smile back. "Now that my arm is starting to feel better, let's take a look at your arm my golden friend."

"Oh thank you!" C3P0 said. "You don't know how worried I was that I would have to go on for days with only one of my appendages."

Biggs nodded and examined the arm. As luck would have it, the gold plated arm didn't appear to be damaged. It likely popped out due to the impact. All he had to do was reconnect the central wires and snap it back in place. Hell, his own shoulder wound was more dramatic to fix than this would be.

"Never thought I'd be riding on the back of bantha fixing a droids arm," he said and looked out over the sand dunes then at the back of the head of the 'driver'. Winter's snow white hair was practically blinding under the suns. Still he was glad to be on the beast with her.

"We all draw strange cards in the service of the Alliance," Winter shrugged. "How's the arm?"

"Tender," Biggs said. "But I'll survive."

"Good… I have a feeling things are only going to get more complicated from here."

Biggs glanced over to the bantha alongside theirs, the one being guided by one of the most notorious bounty hunters in the galaxy. Behind him sat Princess Leia with the hood of her Jedi robes pulled up so as to protect from the sun. He had to admit he envied her just a bit, he would kill for a decent hat at the moment.

At least they had plenty of water. Using anything that would serve as a container that the they could find at Kenobi's hut, they loaded anything that could store water up and packed it on the banthas. Though he was convinced each of them might have drank their weight in water as soon as the vaporator had filled the main water storage unit.

He still had a hard time believing everything that had happened, not the least of it being that they had just been in a hut that, at least for a time, had belonged to a famous Jedi Knight. That hut had been there all these years and nobody had disturbed it. That by itself was hard to believe.

"So the Princess," Biggs said, reworking some of the wires of droid's arm. "Is she always like this?'

"I don't know what you're talking about," Winter said.

"She seems so… morose?"

"Morose? Are you sure you know what that means?"

"Of course I know what it means!"

"Just making sure," Winter said. "I have no idea what they've taught you in whatever barn they used as a school when you were growing up."

"Your jokes about my inexperience would be a lot funnier if I wasn't the first man you ever kissed."

Still looking at her back, Biggs watched as her entire frame stiffened up and her fingers tighten around the reins of the bantha. In spite of himself he grinned. He even glanced over to the droid to share his mirth, though all he got was a blank expression back. It was still funny as all hell though. At least until Winter looked back at him with fire in her eyes.

"_That_. Mr. Darklighter was a little thing we call playing a part. I can assure you that, even though it is none of your business, yours are not the first lips mine have touched and that it will never happen again."

"What if we're prisoners and we need to escape? You never try the same trick-"

"Never. Again."

"What if-"

"You two," Fett said. "Shut up. The bantha's are getting agitated with all of your bickering."

Biggs leaned over and looked at his bantha and then theirs. Either animal seemed barely aware that they were there at all. Part of him considered ignoring what was just said but he figured it wasn't best to provoke a bounty hunter unless he had a good reason. Ribbing Winter was hardly something worth going to blows over.

"The Princess is just worried for the future of the Alliance," Winter finally said. "As should we all."

"Right," Biggs nodded. "I guess more than just the morose look she has it's the… is she always so… mysterious?"

"What?"

"The cloak, the hood, the talking in cryptic language like she knows something the rest of us don't… is she normally like that?"

He watched as Winter's head looked over to the Princess then returned to stare at the desert in front of them. She didn't respond for a bit before finally glancing over her shoulder just a bit.

"That's new."

"Swell," Biggs said.

"More often than not," C3P0 said. "The Princess prefers functional clothing when not wearing royal attire that is."

"Thanks Goldie," Biggs said as he put one hand on C3P0's shoulder and lifted his arm.

"C3P0 sir."

"Nope, I'm Biggs."

"And I am C3P0, human cyborg re-"

Biggs simply snapped the droids arm back in place. While it wouldn't have hurt him, the sudden sensory input of having his arm back shut him up. The droid began working the joint around, lifting the arm up and down in a standard set of tests that were probably in his programming to run anytime he had a limb reattached.

"Oh thank you good sir! That feels so much better!" the droid cooed. "Now that I am back to my full functionality I dearly hope that the Princess will accept me back into her full service. I am afraid I am not too keen on going back to the moisture farm."

"Hey, don't knock on moisture farms," Biggs said. "I grew up on one."

"Oh I'm terribly sorry!" C3P0 said. "If it helps sir, Master Luke was a most gracious and well mannered owner I would never think that-"

"Wait shut up! Who?"

"Master Luke? My previous owner."

"Master Luke?" Biggs said. "As in Luke Skywalker?"

"Well yes sir, that was his name, did you know him?"

"Shut up," Biggs said and looked to the bantha alongside his. "Princ… your highness? Princess Leia? You said that the assassin you attacked was with a farmhand?"

"Yes…"

"Sandy blond hair, a little on the long side? Athletic frame? Maybe a white tunic?"

"Sounds like the guy," Fett said.

"Do you know him?"

"Know him!?" Biggs said. "He's my best friend! He's with the imperial assassin?"

"He defended her and he helped her escape," Leia said.

"He probably thought she was in some sort of trouble," Biggs shook his head. "Kid was always too damned nice for his own good."

"Darklighter," Leia said, pulling her hood down. "This Luke, if he's the same person, was injured. He's likely to return home-"

"Provided the assassin doesn't off him and dump him in the desert," Fett said.

Leia ignored him and continued. "Can you take us to his home?"

"Can these bantha's go any faster?" Biggs said, his heart pumping as he started to realize just how much trouble Luke was in. "I can get us there."

"These things were built for endurance," Fett said. "Not speed."

"The Lars homestead is a hell of a lot closer than Mos Eisely, if they can take a little bit of pressure… we have to try."

"Fine," Fett said. "But if they look like they're getting too hot we have to slow down. The only person I'm willing to drag across the desert is the Princess."

"Excuse me sir," C3P0 said as Biggs pushed himself closer to Winter in the saddle. "Might I inquire as to what's going on? Is Master Luke in trouble."

"More trouble than he's ever been in…" Biggs said then leaned over Winter's shoulder just enough so he could see her face, making sure to keep a proper distance. He had no desire to flirt or provoke right now. "… Please tell me you can remember how to get to the Lars."

"I can Darklighter," she said, glancing over at him. "And we'll go as fast as we can to save your friend."

* * *

The little droid didn't trust her as far as he could throw her. And considering he had no arms… she knew to keep her distance. Still, Mara Jade made sure to never let the little astromech leave her sight. Darth Vader's team had been looking for a droid that the princess may have smuggled the data on, and here it was.

The Princess herself had eluded Mara's grasp but when the Force gift wrapped what made the Princess valuable in the first place, plus a mysterious commodity such as the offspring of the Jedi 'Chosen One', well… Mara knew which way to go. She could always kill the Princess after she delivered the droid and Skywalker's spawn to the Imperial Garrison.

And he was the son of Skywalker. There was no doubt now. She had taken a sample of his blood when she cleaned his wound and had it analyzed, comparing it with the stored information on Skywalker in the Imperial Database. A perfect match. She'd been to one end of the galaxy to the next but she never expected to run into the child of a famous Jedi.

Hell, that was the only reason he was alive right now to leave her alone at a burnt out sand crawler surrounded by the corpses of the jawas that had previously occupied it. The Empire had killed them, obviously, though they'd made some effort in making it look like it was sand people. But she recognized imperial blast points when she saw them.

She'd continued the narrative she'd crafted for him, blaming it on the rebellion in their effort to steal back the R2 unit. Luke had questioned it at first, even mentioning that he had a friend in the Rebellion that he had just seen and that they would never do something like that. Mara replied that maybe he didn't know his friend as well as he thought, to which Luke had remembered that his aunt mentioned that his friend had been by that very morning without wanting to talk to Luke. Mara barely had to make further implications before Luke completely ditched her in an effort to race to his home and warn his family.

Mara could only hope he didn't run into the stormtroopers that did the sandcrawler. Him getting vaporized would put quite the kink in her plan.

A plan that only needed final approval from the one person she reported to. She'd encrypted the data and sent it straight to him. All she waited for now as confirmation. This part always had her on pins and needles. She believed her Master would be pleased with her discoveries and her plan but for all she knew he would be furious that she deviated from her task of killing Princess Leia.

She gazed off into the horizon and saw a speeder approaching. Even from here she could feel the Force potential of the boy. How had he remained hidden all these years? The larger question wasn't even that, the larger question was how a powerful and important Jedi Knight could have an heir and no one know of it. Perhaps her master knew but he had never made mention of it.

And then the Voice came just as it always did. Starting as a slight rumble in the back of her skull and growing until it filled her senses. Most the time it was but a whisper but when the Emperor wanted to he could yell with deafening results. She stiffened up just a bit as it echoed in her ears and leaving her goose bumps up her arms. The Emperor contacting his Hand.

"_You will bring Skywalker directly to me. Willing or not. Do not use Imperial Channels or transports. Nothing to tie you to him. Nothing to reveal his identity_._ Do not fail me my Hand._"

"It will be done my Lord," Mara whispered just as Luke's speeder neared.

His vehicle hovered not too far away and Mara peered through the sand to get a look. Inside, the former farm boy just sat and stared forward as though collecting himself. Mara already knew what had happened to him. The Empire had destroyed his home, his emotions of grief, anger, and pain swirled in the Force. Slowly he got up and pulled himself out of the speeder.

As he approached, she stood, ready to tell him what he needed to hear, and what her Master would want her to do and say.

"There's nothing you could have done Luke," Mara said, placing her hand on his shoulder. "Had you been there you would have been killed to, and the droid would now be in the hands of the Rebellion."

"I want to come with you," Luke said. "There's nothing for me here now. I've seen you use a lightsaber, I want to learn to use the Force just like my father."

Mara nodded and wrapped him in a hug, knowing it was what he needed right now. He held her tightly and even though he wouldn't have seen it, she made sure that she didn't give out the smile that she felt. Her Master's Will would be done.

* * *

They saw the smoke long before they arrived at their destination. Fett spotted it first, black clouds billowing off in the horizon. Biggs heart sank as soon as the bounty hunter pointed it out. But he held onto hope that they would get there and the Lars would be fine; that Luke would be there and they could sort everything out.

At this point he didn't much care if the assassin got away with the droid, just as long as Luke was safe. Biggs joined the Rebellion to fight for people like Luke and his family, now it seemed like the Empire had found a way to put even them in the crossfire.

Still he clung to hope as they neared the homestead, there were any number of reasons that there could be black smoke. He just had to hope it was something mundane like burning garbage or something. But as they drew closer, and the smoke got heavier, Biggs hope dwindled.

At one point they thought they heard a landspeeder zipping away but they weren't able to see who it was. Not for the first time, Biggs wished that he and Winter had been able to stop by their own demolished speeder so they could have recovered some supplies, including macrobinoculars. Unfortunately such wishes were in vain.

Both Leia and Winter offered their condolences once the burnt out homestead came into view. Biggs cursed being on the slow moving bantha rather than a speeder as he was forced to look and dwell on the destruction far longer than he would have otherwise. The Empire had completely destroyed the place, just because they bought a pair of droids.

A raw hole had carved itself out in his stomach by the time he leaped off the bantha and ran to the burning building. His eyes immediately set on the two charred corpses lying on the ground where Winter and he had stood just the day before. He covered his mouth as he stared at the corpses, he couldn't even tell who they were.

"H… help me search the grounds," he finally looked back at the others. "If Luke's dead then we need to look for his body."

"Darklighter," Winter put her hand on his shoulder, he hadn't even realized she'd dismounted. "You can take a break if you want, we'll look-"

"No," Biggs stepped away from her, letting her hand slip off his shoulder. "I have to know if Luke was here when it happened or not."

"For all you know, your friend Luke could be one of them," Fett said nodded toward the corpses.

"Maybe," Biggs said grimly. "But as long as there's not a third body there's hope."

With that he covered his face and entered the smoking remains of the homestead. He immediately went to Luke's room but found it empty, albeit torn apart. The rest of the house seemed to be in a similar state. What was once a fine if not humble home was now a heap. The Empire was death and with every footstep he swore he would pay it back somehow some way.

They searched for over an hour but no third body turned up. Not in any part of the estate. Leia at one point had gone about putting out the fires so at least they didn't need to worry about it burning up all around them. And while they didn't find evidence that Luke was or wasn't part of the carnage, Biggs did find at least one small thing to bring them hope, just not hope surrounding his best friend.

"You sure it will run?" Fett had said once Biggs brought them to the garage. "Looks like it needs to go to the shop… or the wrecker."

All four of them, plus C3P0 stared at the V-24 landspeeder that sat in the back of the garage. Miraculously it had somehow escaped the carnage. Based on what Leia had told him while they travelled here, Luke had the other one the Lars owned; an X-34 model. Biggs wished that the fact that they couldn't find the X-34 meant Luke was alright but the assassin could just as easily taken it.

"The Lars were the type of people that used everything until it couldn't be used anymore, then they fixed it and used it again," Biggs said as he cleared out some space for the speeder. "It might not run well, but it will run, and it will get us to Mos Eisely."

"Or would you rather continue atop a bantha?" Leia said.

"He can come with us or not," Biggs said, opening up the speeder. "I'm leaving in five minutes, the assassin will have to return the droid to the Empire, which means she'll be going to Mos Eisely. If Luke's still alive then I'll find him there."

"And we'll finally be able to get off planet," Winter said. "And get the Princess to safety."

"There's no such thing as safety as long as the Empire has Artoo," Leia said. "So it would seem that Mos Eisely is the next best thing."

* * *

**Next time**: Shooting First


	7. Shooting First

**Chapter 7**

**Shooting First**

"Mos Eisely spaceport," Mara said as they overlooked the city. "You could probably find a worse collection of scum and villainy somewhere in the galaxy but you'd have to look hard to do it."

"I'm ready for anything," Luke said.

"I hope so," Mara laughed. In spite of his naiveté, she had to hand it to the guy, he had confidence. If he survived he might someday learn to back that confidence up.

"So what do we do when we get down there," Luke said as he approached the speeder. "Book passage on a transport?"

"I have a ship," Mara said.

"Oh right," Luke nodded. "Of course you do."

"There is one thing though," Mara said and glanced at R2. "Your little droid, it would be really easy for him to get lost or wander off in that city…"

"Oh don't worry about Artoo," Luke said. "He's not going to run away again. Are you Artoo?"

R2 let out a series of beeps and whistles that caused Luke to raise a brow as somehow they all sounded noncommittal. Almost like the dorid was lying about not wanting to run off. Was that even possible?

"We only met because he ran away," Mara said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I saw the restraining bolt in the glove compartment; it would be a good idea to put it back on. We need to return the stolen data he has and you need your droid."

"I guess you're right," Luke shrugged and grabbed the bolt. "Sorry about this buddy."

R2 whined and warbled the entire time Luke fitted the bolt but in the end it was fitted and Artoo let out a woeful 'dwooooo'. The little droid's feelings notwithstanding, they soon made their way into the city.

For Luke it was an eye opener. He'd never been to Mos Eisely before and he had no idea such a big city even existed on Tatooine. Everywhere he looked there was something new, a new class of droid he'd never seen, an alien race he never knew existed, and everywhere imperial stormtroopers marched and questioned people.

Luke didn't have time to wonder about it though, as a squad of stormtroopers quickly pulled them over and approached Luke, sitting in the drivers seat. His natural instincts took over and he had to fight the urge to gun the engines, stormtroopers were never good news, even if his current companion worked for the same organization.

"You two, how long have you had this droid?"

"A couple of seasons," Luke managed, unsure what Mara would do at this point.

"Is there a problem captain?" Mara said.

"Let me see your identification."

"Of course," Mara said and handed him an id card.

The stormtrooper examined it for a moment before handing it back to Mara and glancing at his men.

"This isn't the droid we're looking for, they can go about their business," he turned back to them. "Move along."

Luke managed, at least he hoped he did, to keep his face straight as he looked from the trooper to the controls then touched the accelerator and maneuvered them away from the stormtroopers. Mara busied herself with putting her id away and smiling smugly to herself.

"What's on your id? Some sort of high ranking imperial clearance?" Luke said. "Sorry, I'm still not used to stormtroopers, I thought we were dead, I guess that was kind of dumb."

"No Luke," she said. "It's never dumb to be wary of stormtroopers, they're doing their job but some in the Empire are a little heavy handed, stormtroopers included. As to what exactly happened back there… let's just say I gave him _an_ id that he could respect."

"What…" Luke glanced back at her. "What exactly do you do in the Empire?"

"I'm a patent clerk," she winked at him but then shrugged. "Internal affairs."

"That makes sense," Luke nodded. "So which way to your ship?"

Mara gave him the necessary directions, though, on their way they did manage to get a little lost. The streets of Mos Eisely weren't exactly familiar to them. But after a few missed streets they found their way to the docking bays and just as quickly to the one that housed Mara's ship.

"What about my speeder?" Luke said as they got out.

"You can sell it," Mara said. "Trust me, in the service of the Empire you'll be able to get one that's a hell of a lot better."

"Service of the Empire," Luke muttered as he eyed his speeder.

Mara latched onto his hand so he would look at her. "Luke, believe me that it will be okay. We're not all the monsters you think we are."

"I don't think you're a monster," Luke said.

"Good," she smiled. "Now lock your speeder down and come see my ship. Then I'll help you find a buyer and we can leave."

Luke nodded and followed her into the docking bay, making sure that the restraining bolt system on R2 was functional. The droid had made nothing but defeated moaning noises ever since the bolt had been reattached. Somewhere in the back of his mind he felt sorry for the little droid, it wasn't his fault he carried stolen data.

Upon entering the docking bay, Luke expected to find some sort of modern imperial transport craft. Perhaps a lambda class shuttle even. Instead he was greeted with the sight of an empty hanger. He even spotted little dust cyclones in the center of it. In the end he could only scratch his head and look to his companion.

"You sure you remember where you parked?" he said.

"Very funny Skywalker," she said then frowned. "But… I don't… I did land here."

"We should talk to the docking officer," Luke said.

After nearly an hour they finally found their way to the docking offices, only to be met with a gaggle of busy administration droids, a napping secretary and finally a three-eyed gran that could barely look up from his reports to give them the time of day.

"What docking bay did you say you landed at?" he said in basic so perfect it bordered on unsettling.

"Forty one," Mara said.

"Forty one," the gran said, glancing down at his computer. "Forty one, forty one, forty… oh… oh my."

"What?" Luke said.

"It would appear that… oh well…" he glanced back up at them then down at his screen. "It would appear that I've found the problem. I'm afraid I can't help you find your ship."

"What the hell does that mean?" Mara said.

"You see, you landed in docking bay forty one two days ago then didn't respond to any of our communications. Docking bay forty one was to be cleared for use by Jabba the Hutt."

"You're kidding," Mara leaned her hands onto the table. "What did you do with my ship?"

"We tried to contact you!" the gran said. "But when we couldn't, Jabba had your ship impounded. I'm afraid he has your ship now."

"Oh that's just kriffing perfect!" Mara said. "I have to deal with a Hutt to get my ship back?"

"I'm afraid so," the gran said.

"Stop saying that," Mara hissed then made for the door.

"Come on Luke, we're going."

Slightly dumbfounded, Luke followed dutifully behindas soon as they exited the building. Luke almost thought the situation was comical, he'd known Mara for less than a day but in that time she'd always exuded confidence and competence. It was actually kind of refreshing to see that she was every bit as human as he was.

"So," Luke said, his mind slightly reeling at the thought of their next step. "Are we really going to try and set up a meeting with Jabba?"

Mara remained still, her eyes clenched shut as though fighting back a head ache. Finally she released a breath and shook her head. "No, the information contained in your R2 unit is time sensitive. We can't afford to hang around here, especially with the Rebellion on our tails. We're going to need to find a transport like you suggested."

"Okay," Luke said. "So where do we do that? A local cantina?"

"Not so much," she said. "Trust me Luke, you go looking to talk to those spacer directly and all of them are going to just want to add the use of your body to price of transport."

"I don't think that's something I need to worry about," Luke said.

"Hmmm," her eyes roamed over him. "I wouldn't be so sure."

Luke blushed and she grinned motioning him to follow her to a computer.

* * *

"Mos Eisely is dangerous, but it's no Nar Shadda," Boba Fett said. "Which is why it's a good thing we're not going there."

Leia gazed down at the spaceport, watching as various starships took off and landed. Granted, it was nothing compared to the spaceports at Aldera or Coronet, but it wasn't tiny either. And at this point she didn't feel like arguing with Fett, mostly because she hadn't made up her mind about her next move.

Her instincts, her gut, told her to get on a ship and get to Nar Shadda. In the back of her mind she could still hear the ghostly voice of Qui-gon Jinn telling her that rescuing Obi-wan was of the utmost importance. But she couldn't just abandon the Rebellion by ignoring the fact that an Imperial assassin now had the Death Star plans.

"Do you think Luke is down there?" Biggs said.

"I hope that he is," Leia said. "Because he will have Artoo with him."

"And an assassin," Winter said.

"And if we run into her," Fett said. "Let me deal with it. You kids have no idea what you're up against with the likes of her."

"I'm ready for anything," Biggs said.

"Let's go," Winter said as she rolled her eyes.

The four of them piled back into the speeder, which had proved all too cramped, especially with C3P0's unyielding metal frame occupying a seat. Yet each of them was privately thankful that the speeder had gotten them this far. They'd still be in the desert if they were on bantha.

Biggs navigated the speeder into the city, muttering a curse every time the engine stalled or sputtered, only to just as quickly talk to it in a reassuring voice like one might a frightened pet.

"It's okay girl," Biggs patted the dash. "You're doing so good. Just a little bit further."

"Will you stop that," Fett said. "You sound ridiculous."

"Hey," Biggs said. "I don't tell you how to bounty hunt, you don't tell me how to pilot."

"Can _I_ tell you how to pilot?" Winter said. "You need to slow down, you don't want to attract any patrols."

"Patrols…" Leia muttered as she looked on the cityscape around her. Deep down in her stomach, a feeling of unease rose up until she felt a chill. For half a moment she thought she imagined stormtroopers carting them off and taking C3P0 with them. Quickly she started shuffling her cloak off.

"What are you doing?" Fett said.

Leia finished doffing her robe and threw it into the back seat where Fett, Winter, and C3P0 were. "Put this on the droid and pull up the hood, make sure his photoreceptors don't show."

"I beg your pardon Mistress Leia," the droid said. "But what is the matter-"

"Listen to me Threepio, if we get stopped you're to act as though you are my uncle."

"But Mistress Leia I find this highly irregular! I'm an interpreter not a Dramabot!"

"Threepio that's a direct order," Leia said and looked to Fett and Winter who began dressing the droid.

"Better do it fast," Biggs said. "They've set up a checkpoint. We're going to have to talk to them one way or another."

The two in the back barely had time to pull the robe around the droid as Biggs began slowing the vehicle down. Leia's heart stammered in her chest as she kept looking back at the droid and then at the patrol, all the while thankful that this speeder came with a fully covered canopy and tinted windows. By the time Biggs finally stopped the speeder they'd just barely managed to get the hood over Threepio's head.

"Good afternoon captain," Biggs said after lowering his window. "Is there a problem?"

The stormtrooper lowered his head so he could peer into the speeder. Leia's stomach turned in knots but she used a practiced smile as the stormtrooper looked at her then back at the other occupants; Leia did so as well, suddenly thankful that in all of the commotion, Fett had chosen to remove his own helmet.

"Routine inspection," the stormtrooper said. "What's your business here in Mos Eisely?"

"We're looking to buy some droids to help with the upcoming harvest," Biggs said. "Heard there were some good deals here."

"Droids huh?" the stormtrooper said as he looked into the cabin again. "What kind of droids are you looking for?"

"Anything that can speak a trade language," Fett said. "Like Bocce."

"Maybe a utility droid," Leia said. "We're going to have to see what we can find."

The stormtrooper regard them for a second then told them to wait right where they were. He then went to the small group of stormtroopers that backed him up and began a conversation they couldn't hear. Leia watched as Bigg's foot hovered over the accelerator, ready to jam it down if need; all the while she fought her instincts to reach for her blaster.

Finally the stormtrooper came back, dipping his head so he could get a good look into the cabin. "When you're out droid shopping, you keep a look out for any droids that may look stolen. If you find anything, report it immediately. Understand?"

"Yes sir," They all said.

"Also this speeder you have looks pretty beat up, you may want to have it inspected," he said then nodded toward C3P0. "You got that back there?"

Leia felt her hand going for her blaster as Threepio didn't respond right away. They were so close now! She just had to pray that—

"Of course sir," C3P0 said. "It's been in the family for years, but it's up for sale if you want it."

"No," the stormtrooper said. "I don't think we need a beat up, outdated landspeeder."

"Are you sure sir?" the droid said. "We're willing to bargain, I'm positive that we can find a price that we would all find equitable. This model is a little dilapidated but with the proper maintenance it is quite serviceable and could even draw a high price by the right coll-"

"Alright shut up, go about your business and remember what I said about those droids."

"Yes sir," Biggs nodded, waiting just long enough for the stormtrooper to step back before easing them away, slowly picking up speed until they could put some proper distance between them and the checkpoint. Only when there were no imperial troops in sight did any of them breath sighs of relief.

"This is the craziest, stupidest job I ever did," Fett muttered as he put his helmet back on.

"Threepio," Biggs said. "Next time I go looking for a new starfighter I'm taking you with me. You're a natural salesman."

"That is the strangest compliment I've ever received," the droid said.

It didn't take them long to come to the docking bay where Winter had her ship stowed. Leia found herself still considering her options even as they unloaded from the speeder and entered the docking ring. Biggs was already talking about finding the dock officer and getting everything ready for them to leave like it was all decided. Meanwhile Fett mentioned something about finding them a false registry just in case they got stopped.

She just knew that she'd never forgive herself if she didn't try to find R2-D2.

Initially, she followed after everyone into docking bay 93, where Winter's sleek, J-type Nubian Star Skiff lay berthed. Biggs gawked and went on about it being a classic and practically worshiping the thing while Fett complained about it being rubbish in a fight. Slowly, they boarded with the princess taking up the rear. Leia waited until Fett decided to avail himself of the comm-unit, something about getting in touch with his contacts and getting some proper gear, before slipping out of the ship altogether.

She wasn't at all sure where she was going to go. She didn't have the smallest clue as how to find the assassin. But she needed to start somewhere. If she could just make the slightest bit of headway she might have enough momentum to make Fett fall in line.

Careful to stick to the back alleys and take as many detours as she could, Leia began working her way through the city. She needed to make it as hard as she could for Fett to follow her and she knew it wouldn't take him long to realize she was gone. She just had to hope that what Qui-gon had said was true, that the Force would guide her.

Her comm-link buzzed and she knew that it was the others looking for her. She promised herself that she would answer soon but otherwise ignored it. Something in her gut was telling her to go on, keep following the path that she was on. There was something here for her, she just had to find it.

Eventually she came out into an open street and immediately cursed her luck. So much for the Force guiding her. Off to one side, an imperial patrol marched by. To the other, Fett and her companions stood, looking around in every direction. Leia took a couple of steps back and then her eyes fell onto an open doorway. Her nose wrinkled at the idea of stepping into a trashy cantina, but she didn't have much choice at this point.

It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the light in the cantina but once she did, she was greeted with the sight of a veritable menagerie of assorted alien races. Off to the side, a Bith band played a peppy jatz tune. If not for the smell, this place would actually be quite refreshing.

Leia made her way to the bar, dodging several small aliens, and took a stool. Perhaps this was the way to start. She could ask around, surely these sentient beings had their ears to the ground; some of them had ears that touched the ground! Maybe one of them would be able to recognize the assassin or even Luke. It was worth a try.

An effort, that unfortunately, Leia wasn't able to make right away. She hadn't seated herself for more than a minute before a particularly inebriated aqualish latched onto her shoulder and grumbled something in his language. Leia pulled her arm away from him and turned away. Not two seconds later a finger tapped her shoulder.

"He likes you," a particularly ugly man said, breathing his foul breath all over her.

"I'm sorry," Leia said.

"I like you too," he grinned. "You should come with us, you would like it. I know your type, you like danger. I have the death sentence on twelve systems."

"I'd rather be careful," Leia said and made to get up. The man latched onto her and spun her around, digging his hands into her shoulders.

"You'll be dead!"

"This one's not worth the effort," a smooth voice suddenly came and Leia turned to see a tall, sandy haired man approaching. He wore an outfit that identified him as a spacer with a white shirt, tall boots, and black vest, all in all giving him a fairly scruffy look. Not exactly a knight in shining armor but she'd take what she could get at this point.

"What if I think she is?" the man said, still gripping her shoulders.

"She's not," the spacer said as a wookiee stood up behind him and roared something so loud that the bith musicians stopped playing.

Both the aqualish and his companion were so frightened they practically stumbled over themselves to get away, both falling over each other to exit the cantina. Leia couldn't help but grin as they ran away, even drunk ne're-do-wells knew better than to upset a wookiee.

"You said it Chewie," her rescuer said. "Some people don't know how to treat a lady."

"And I suppose you do," Leia raised a brow.

The spacer gave her a disarming lopsided grin. "Why don't you come to my booth over there and you can decide for yourself?"

"Thank you sir," Leia said, trying to decide if she found him charming or disgusting. "But I think I'm quite comfortable right here."

"Suit yourself," he shrugged but then nodded toward the door. "But it looks like someone's taking an interest in the ruckus we just caused."

Leia glanced toward the door to see a group of stormtroopers entering. Quickly she hopped out of her seat and followed the spacer to his booth. He told his wookiee companion to go and prep their ship while Leia took her seat; then, just as quickly, she leaned across the table and took his hands in hers. To anyone watching they would appear a couple of humans that just so happened to be something of an item.

"The name's Han Solo," he grinned when he realized what she was doing. "Let me guess, you're in some kind of local trouble?"

"You could say that," Leia said with the sweetest grin she could muster, her eyes occasionally darting over to the stormtroopers. "But I don't need you to come charging to my rescue."

"Of course not," Solo said. "Just like you don't need me to help you avoid this stormtrooper patrol."

"How sweet," Leia said in almost a sing-song tone. "But I'm quite capable of handling myself. Besides, I get the sense your help comes with a hefty fee."

"It's what you pay for the best sweetheart," Solo grinned leaving his hands entangled with hers, even though the stormtroopers had left.

"Best at what? Having a burly wookiee friend to intimidate drunkards? Hardly a marketable talent," Leia leaned back in her seat, taking her hands away from him.

"You'd be surprised," Solo said. "But I happen to be the best starpilot this side of the mid-rim. I'm captain of the _Millennium Falcon_."

"And?"

"You haven't heard of the _Millennium Falcon_?"

"Should I have?"

"She's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

Leia cocked a brow. Did this guy think she was stupid? She couldn't decide if he was looking at her like she was an easy mark or fresh meat. Either way she didn't see any point in engaging him in an argument about his rather lofty claims about his ship.

"I'm sure it has," she said. "But I'm not looking for a ship. I have one of those. What I really need is information."

"Information," Solo raised a brow. "Well that's what everyone wants these days. What do you need?"

"I'm looking for a woman…"

"Now you're just breaking my heart."

"… And a young man, about my age. They've stolen an astromech droid that belongs to me."

"Interesting, and what exactly are you willing to pay for this information?"

"You know who I'm talking about?" Leia leaned over the table.

Solo just fired her that damn smirk of his. "I didn't say that, but let's assume that I may know something. What's it worth to you?"

"More than a few credits," Leia said. "Especially if you can help me-"

Her voice trailed off when she realized someone was standing right in front of their table. For a moment she worried it was the stormtroopers or even Fett. Instead she looked up to see a particularly weasley looking rodian hovering about, staring at both herself and Captain Solo.

"_You should leave_," the rodian said in huttese. "_You should leave now little one_."

"Buzz off Greedo," Solo said. "The lady and I are talking."

"_And now you and I are talking_," Greedo said. "_Tell her to get lost_."

"I'm quite comfortable where I am thank you very much," Leia said. "You can speak with the good captain later."

"_I'll talk to him now_," the rodian drew his blaster.

For the first couple of seconds, Leia considered getting up, but this guy knew something. So instead of leaving she scooted over, finding herself sitting alongside the spacer. Even in this tense situation she noticed his grin as he draped his arm around her shoulder.

"There's no need for this Greedo," Solo said. "I was just on my way to see your boss. Tell Jabba I have the money."

"_It's too late_," the Rodian said. "_You should have paid him when you had the chance. Jabba put a price on your head so large, every bounty hunter in the Galaxy will be looking for you._"

"Yeah but this time I have the money," Solo said, bringing one hand down the side of his body while the other one stroked Leia's hair.

"_If you give it to me I might forget that I saw you_," Greedo said.

"As if he would have it with him," Leia said.

"Exactly," Solo said. "Tell Jabba-"

"_Jabba's through with you! He has no time for smugglers that drop their shipments at the first sign of an imperial cruiser_."

"Look, even I get boarded sometimes, you think I had a choice."

"_Tell that to Jabba! He may only take your ship_."

"Over my dead body," Solo practically growled.

"_That's the idea_," Greedo said, his finger itching toward the trigger. "_I've been looking forward to this for a long time._"

Leia didn't wait, she didn't hesitate. The moment she saw the rodian squeezing his trigger she went for her own. Greedo, having caught her movement out of the corner of his eye trained his pistol at her but he was too late. She pumped a bolt point blank in his chest. The entire bar went silent as the rodian fell in a smoking heap.

The first sound to interrupt the silence was a chuckle from Solo himself. She looked at him as he holstered his own blaster. "That's quite some trigger finger you have sister."

"It seems I need to go," she said, knowing imperial troops wouldn't be far off. "And it looks like we're even."

"Yeah, I'd say that we are," Solo got up with her. "You saved me the trouble of blasting him myself, nice work."

Solo tossed the barman a cred chit and followed Leia out into the sunlight. For a moment they just stood there looking at each other. Leia knew she couldn't afford to just stand there but she needed to continue negotiating with him.

"So about that information," she said.

"Sorry sweetheart," He looked down at her. "I was just wanting to know how much you were offering so I could keep my ear to the ground. I've got no idea who you're talking about. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a flight to charter and it's more important than ever that I do it. See you around sister."

Solo gave her a slight nod and started off. Leia remained where she was for a moment before running after him. She'd seen a flash of recognition in his eyes when she brought up the people she was after. He knew something!

"Wait! You can't just-"

"There you are!" a voice barked and pulled her into a nearby alleyway. Leia tried punching the man but her fist just hit his armor. Boba Fett shoved her at a wall only to have Winter and Biggs jump between him and the Princess.

"Don't ever try running away like that again Princess," Fett hissed. "You're no good to me dead."

"She's not dead, she's fine," Winter said. "So you can keep your hands off."

"Idiot!" Leia said as she got up and ran back into the street. But to her dismay, Captain Solo was nowhere to be seen. "I can't believe it! I had a lead on the assassin!"

"You did?" Biggs said. "What about Luke?"

"Him to!" Leia clenched her fists together as she glared at Fett. "Help me find him! He can lead us to the assassin."

"No," Fett said. "I'm not chasing after a karking assassin for you. We're going back to Retrac's ship and getting the hell away from here."

"Absolutely not!" Leia said. "I'm not leaving until I find Artoo! Come on! He can't have gotten far!"

"Leia wait! Wait!" Winter said but Leia was already barreling down the streets looking for Han Solo.

* * *

Luke shook his head as the bodies hit the ground. The first thing he saw when Mara had woken him up in the desert, apart from her face, was dead sand people. Now two men lay dead on the streets of Mos Eisely. An aqualish and a particularly ugly human. Both dead at her hand. He didn't like this pattern.

"I'm alright," Luke said as Mara helped him up.

"You certainly have a way with people buddy," Mara said. "I thought you were trying to sell them your speeder?"

"That's what I thought too," Luke shook his head. "Next thing I knew they were throwing me to the ground and ranting about having the death sentence on seven systems or something."

"Looks like justice had its day then," Mara shrugged. "I just got a signal from our ride. It's time to go."

"But I haven't sold my speeder yet," Luke said.

Mara's lips tightened and for a second Luke thought she was staring him down. But in the end she just sighed and took him by the hand. "Luke, I'll call the Imperial governor after we're gone and he'll put your speeder on the market, but right now we need to get Artoo to safety. Besides, once we get to Coruscant you'll forget all about that old thing."

"Alright," Luke frowned and glanced back at his speeder. It was really the last thing he had on this planet. He fully intended to never come back to this place but there was a twinge of regret just leaving it here.

"Come on," Mara smiled and squeezed his hand. "We have a ship to catch."

With each step they took, Luke found his conflicting emotions lifting just a bit. Maybe he was excited at the prospect of going to the Galactic City. Maybe he was excited at the prospect of learning how to wield a lightsaber. Or maybe it was because Mara kept a warm grip on his hand the entire time. Either way, he felt better and better about his decision to come with her the closer they got to their docking bay.

Of course he couldn't entirely forget his doubts, especially with R2 following behind them tooting in a mournful tone. He'd never seen a droid act this way before. His uncle had told him to have its memory wiped and Luke hadn't been a fan of this idea. But if the droid kept going on like this, he'd have to consider it.

Finally they came to the docking bay and Luke saw for the first time, the ship that would carry him and Mara to Coruscant where he was going to begin his new life. In his mind it had been a sleek, fine craft. The reality of it however…

"What a piece of junk!" Luke couldn't help himself.

"She'll make point five past lightspeed," the captain said. Luke hadn't met him yet. Mara had found him over the holonet and conducted the entire negotiation through a holo-unit. "She may not look like much but she's got it where it counts kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself. But, we're a little rushed so if you'll just get on board we'll get out of here."

"Sounds good to me, Artoo get on board," Mara said as she eyed the ship then looked to the captain. "Pleasure to meet you in person."

"Han Solo," he extended his hand to her.

"Mara Jade."

"I'm Luke Skywalker," Luke said.

"That's great kid," he said as he shook Mara's hand, never breaking eye contact with her. "Your credits cleared nicely but let's be straight. No Imperial entanglements and I get the other half when we reach Coruscant?"

"That's what I sai-"

Mara halted mid-sentence as if she'd heard something. She released Solo's hand and turned to the main hanger entrance with a look of alarm and suspicion. Luke followed her gaze and seconds later a small group of men and women appeared, each of them armed to the teeth or at least they looked that way to a farmboy that had never seen anybody armed to the teeth.

He of course recognized the bounty hunter right away, as well as the cloaked Jedi that shuffled in behind the rest of them. There were two women he didn't recognize, though one, at least from a distance, looked like the princess from the recordings.

But in the end there was only one that he really paid attention to. His heart sank into his stomach the moment he saw him. Seeing him with the people that had attacked Mara and himself in the desert confirmed everything he'd feared and Mara said.

"Luke!" Biggs said. "Luke you have to listen to-"

A blaster bolt from Mara nearly hit him and sent the intruders ducking for cover, except for the Jedi who stumbled to the ground, golden limbs dangling about. Luke didn't have time to question why the Jedi looked like C3P0 under the robes, he too was ducking for cover as the ship bounty hunter and the women returned fire.

Mara and Solo each fired back, each of them missing their mark but creating enough chaos that Luke could make for the loading ramp. He grabbed Mara's hand and pulled her up with him. She resisted at first, at least until Captain Solo charged up the ramp and hit the close mechanism.

Luke and Mara tumbled on the floor together as the loading ramp shut and Solo ran to the cockpit. A few blaster shots could be heard hitting the ship's hull even as the engines began to rumble.

"Get off me!" Mara pushed Luke away and climbed to her feet, running to the cockpit. Luke quickly rolled onto his feet and raced after her, passing R2 as he went. He reached the cockpit just as the ship took off.

"I know Chewie I know!" Solo said to wookiee that sat in the co-pilot's chair. "Just get us out of here!"

"But aren't we out of danger?" Luke said. "There's no way they can hit us now."

"Don't be so sure kid," Solo nodded to the bottom right window. "Looks like their ship is adjacent to ours."

Luke looked out of the cockpit to see the docking bay alongside theirs contained a sleek spacecraft of its own. Even from this distance, he could see their attackers making their way to it. If they had things running smoothly they could airborne in time for pursuit.

"You said this thing was fast," Mara said. "I hope you weren't just selling us a bill of goods."

"We can outrun that thing honey," Solo said though as soon as he did an indicator light came on.

"What's that?" Luke said.

"They're airborne already," Han said. "Looks like they really want to catch you guys."

Moments later the ship rocked with turbo laser fire, they'd only barely cleared the atmosphere. But the rebel ship stayed right on them, blasting as it went. Luke was almost jostled out of his seat.

"I thought you said we'd lose them," Luke said.

"Watch your mouth kid or you're going to be floating home!" Solo said.

Chewie barked a few things and Solo locked onto a couple of new blips on the screen. "Looks like the Empire didn't like us blasting out of the spaceport unauthorized. Two of them coming in fast."

"This is a fine mess you've gotten us into," Mara said.

"Don't worry I'll get us right back out of it," Solo grinned the ship buckled again. "This is where the fun begins. You two go get buckled in, we're going to calculate the jump to lightspeed."

"But they're gaining on us!" Luke said.

Solo went on a tirade about how hyperspace worked all the while the deflector screens went out. The navicomputer finally beeped that the coordinates were set and Solo ordered them back. Luke and Mara ran to the passenger deck and strapped themselves in, just in time to feel the ship lurch into lightspeed.

Mara breathed a sigh of relief but Luke found he felt no such respite. Sure, they'd gotten away, but his mind kept going back to seeing Biggs standing there in that hanger. Standing with the people that had been trying to kill him. They may have escaped but Luke had lost a friend forever.

* * *

"Fett, get off the damn guns!" Biggs yelled into the comm-channel. "They're gone… and we have bigger problems to deal with!"

Ship buffeted under the turbo laser cannons of the star destroyers and Biggs swore at their bad luck. The assassin had gotten away with Luke and the droid, and top of it, they were about to get blasted into cosmic dust. Winter worked the co-pilot's position trying to boost power to the rear deflectors.

"They're going to be in tractor range any minute," Winter said.

"I know a few maneuvers, we'll lose them," Biggs said. "That is if we have a destination."

"Is there any way you can track them?" Leia said.

"If we had an hour to analyze their trajectory?" Biggs said. "Probably not, but we have to pick a destination ourselves and get the hell out of here!"

"I'll lay in the coordinates to Alderaan," Winter said.

"I hear it's wonderful on Alderaan," Biggs said. "Especially this time of year."

Leia merely stared forward at the empty space in front of them. Thousands of potential destinations to chose from and all she wanted was to figure out where that damn Captain Solo's ship had gone. Coruscant was a good bet, but it could be to any number of Imperial installations. There was simply no way of knowing.

The ship rocked again and she thought she heard an echo of a calming voice. Like a reminder from a long dead Jedi master. The ship buckled and she gripped her straps. It was too late to retrieve the droid. But she still had another mission to fulfill. One that deep down she knew she should have been concentrating on from the beginning.

"Nar Shadda," she said, drawing the attention of the others. "Set coordinates to Nar Shadda."

"Your highness," Winter said. "We need to get to a safe port. Your father will be needing word of your rescue. We need a back up plan now that the Empire has recovered Artoo."

"That doesn't matter," Leia said. "All that matters it finding General Kenobi. Set the coordinates to Nar Shadda."

Slowly Winter nodded and entered the necessary computations into the navicomputer. Fett appeared soon after, reporting that if they didn't leave the system immediately they would be captured by the star destroyers. Leia fixed her gaze on a point of light, for the first time in days, in spite of the peril and the failure, she felt right about something.

"Coordinates are set!" Biggs said. "Punching it!"

The stars streaked and the ship fired into hyperspace. Leia let out a sigh, like it or not she was committed now. She would not rest until she found Obi-wan Kenobi.

* * *

Next time: Tales of a Jedi on the Smuggler's Moon.


End file.
